Bare-knuckle blood no good for the game: Time to K.O. fighting

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/03/2011 (5411 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NHL says it’s serious about player safety and working to cut down on concussions but unless it’s willing to put fighting on the table, the talk is cheap.

 

“Our game is great. We don’t need to change the game. What we hope to do is make the game safer for the players without changing the entertainment value of the game,” said Montreal Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier on Monday. “The simplest way to explain it is that we need to address where we draw the line between what’s acceptable and what’s not. I think the resolve is strong enough that we will look at a lot of areas.”

Banning fighting from hockey, it seems, won’t be one of those areas getting a look. For some reason we cling to the notion that fist fighting still has a needed place in hockey. It is still ‘acceptable.’

It shouldn’t be. Not any longer. Not with what we know about the damage inflicted to the brain and the suffering these men go through as active players and in retirement.

Fighting isn’t part of our grassroots game anymore and it shouldn’t be part of the pro game. The damage outweighs the entertainment value and if fighting is the only way to police certain actions in the game — the men administrating our pro leagues should all be ashamed of their ineffective leadership.

As one NHL executive told us on Monday, “it’s great to talk about concussions and head shots but then to allow bare-knuckle fighting — it’s counterintuitive.”

Fighting, goes the argument, is part of the game. So was rampant alcohol abuse for much of hockey’s history. Steroids were part of baseball for a long stretch. Boxers used to fight without gloves until it was deemed inhumane. Games, like everything else in life, must change and they do.

‘Boys will be boys’ and ‘it’s part of the game’ are specious arguments and indefensible in an era where we know of the often irreparable harm being done by the clanging of one man’s fist against another’s head.

The NHL released a package of statistics to media as part of the GM’s meetings in Florida on Monday and a number were focused on fighting and the part it plays in the concussion debate.

Fighting was the cause of eight per cent of all concussions reported in the league this season and 16 per cent of all man games lost due to concussion-related injuries were caused by fighting.

Everything in hockey has become bigger, faster and more dangerous. Including the punchers and their punches.

Hockey traditionalists will point to European hockey and the lack of hitting and fighting and say that game is boring. Agreed.

But the best hockey we see in North America every year is playoff hockey and fighting is predominantly absent from the games. Same goes for the Olympic games we’ve watched recently. Throw in the Canada Cup and the Summit Series, too.

No scraps. Just fast, smart and physical hockey. The best of the best.

One player told us Monday there’s no chance of completely removing fighting from hockey but increasing the five-minute major penalty to a game misconduct will go a long way to cutting down on the number of fights.

“There are always going to be fights. They aren’t allowed to fight in football or baseball or basketball but it happens. They just get thrown out of the game,” said the NHL veteran. “You just have to really want to fight if you’re going to get thrown out. Sometimes there will be a call for it. But there won’t be any room for a slug at the end of the bench. Coaches won’t sit a guy there all night knowing the first time they put him out there to do his job he’s gonna be gone.”

Hockey has and always will have an element of violence. That’s one of the things that attracts us to contact sports. But there are limits. Our sports shouldn’t degrade and incapacitate the participants.

There’s no need for fighting in hockey and it serves no purpose. Get rid of it now for the betterment of the game and its players.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca