Sometimes I can't articulate the argument well enough. I was reading some comments on Damien Cox's blog, "The Spin," and stumbled upon a fantastic posting. Here it is:
"I never had a problem with fighting in hockey and used to cheer a good donnybrook as much as the next guy. Then, I became a dad and took my 3 year old son to a Jr. B game. When a fight broke out, he became very quiet and concerned and asked me why they were hitting each other. I didn't have a good answer.
"Try justifying violence against another individual to a child - you simply can't. I know that there are nuances to the game in its current incarnation that support compelling arguments for why it's necessary to protect one's teammates by dropping the gloves, but surely the rules can be enforced in a manner that make fighting unnecessary. Certainly, seeing a hockey fight occur through the eyes of a small child changed my perspective.
Hockey is an absolutely great game, and would still be so if fighting was banned outright."
The author's name is James and that's just about all the credit I can give. Can you disagree with him? I would be interested to see someone even try. His story is clear example of why fighting is stupid. Inappropriate behaviour doesn't have a place in a sport that children typically play and watch. The NHL has to choose whether it's a top-4 professional sports league, or a pay-per-view fighting league like MMA. The half time fighting show needs to end now.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
If you don't want your son to see fighting why the hell did you bring him to a hockey game?
That's like complaining that a fight broke out at a boxing match you took your son too
Dear reader,
Thanks for visiting and taking the time to comment.
Your analogy, "That's like complaing that a fight broke out at a boxing match," proves nothing.
First, I know what to expect out of boxing. Fighting. Punches, blows, blood, bruises. Some ugly stuff. A boxing fan watches boxing because fighting IS the game of boxing.
Hockey is about skating, shooting, passing, etc. This is acceptable for young children to watch. But then these idiotic, unexplainable fights break out and that is not acceptable for kids to see (Just as that one father on the Toronto Star website pointed out).
Fighting has unfortunately become "a part of the game" of hockey because a culture of violence has been tolerated for many decades. People like you accept fighting in hockey because hockey fans have turned their brains off and failed to evaluate this idiotic culture of violence critically.
You believe it is essential to the game of hockey only because it is a tradition. My mission is to show you that fighting is not necessary in hockey. Traditions needs to be evaluated all the time to make sure that society isn't doing or tolerating something stupid when it shouldn't
I won't take my kid to a boxing match or an MMA match because it's not kids entertainment. It's meant for adults who have the capacity to understand that the sport involves fighting and blood. And you know what? I have no problem with that. You don't have an argument because of that fact.
Boxing is different than hockey because it is all about fighting. Currently, the NHL accepts fighting and my whole argument is that it's a very big problem.
Ok, now my turn to give you some advice:
If you love fighting so much, why do you bother watching hockey? Shouldn't you be a boxing fan instead? You must be really bored during hockey games because fighting only happens about 10% of the time, if not less. How do you tolerate 90% of quality skill and play, and anxiously await for a brawl to erupt?
Try really hard to look at this logical argument:
A. Fighting is not acceptable for children to watch.
B. Boxing involves fighting.
C. Children should not be allowed to watch boxing.
___________________________________
Now change B and C like this:
B. Fighting involves fighting.
C. Children should not be allowed to watch hockey.
That my friend, is true. As long as violence is tolerated, I will not let me children play or watch hockey. And if they do want to watch it, I will take a lot of time to explain that the fighting part is very, very, very stupid.
I'm ready for a rebuttal any time.
Dear Anonymous,
Yours is the worst analogy I have ever heard. It works just like this:
If you don't want your kids to be so fat, then just put them on a McDonald's diet.
See? It makes absolutely no sense, right? Neither does yours.
EDIT:
I just found a typo. A little more than 3/4 through my original comment it says:
B. Fighting involves fighting.
It should be:
B. Hockey involves fighting.
Post a Comment