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VIOLENCE HAS BECOME A PART OF THE AMERICAN
SPORTS CULTURE
By Kevin Quinn
In today’s sports world, the high premium placed on victory and the fan’s desire to see intense human conflict, has allowed violence to become an accepted part of sports.
Violence is craved by America’s entertainment industry and the same goes for America’s sports industry. In sports such as, hockey, football, and even baseball, violence has become an accepted part of the game.
A’Don Allen, sports director for ABC News Channel 36, in Elmira, New York, said that in hockey it is the fighting that keeps fans coming back to games.
“The entire arena erupts with cheering when there are fights,” said Allen, adding, “Even if their team is losing, the fans still get excited when they see two players pummeling each other.”
In hockey, there are players whose specific purpose is to be the team’s “enforcer” or as some call them, “goons.” Referees will even allow players to fight for a few minutes without intervening. After the fight, the players simply receive a five-minute penalty, after which they can return to the ice. Rarely are players ejected and often they go to the penalty box with blood gushing from their face.
In baseball, fighting is punished more seriously, however, it is not always looked down upon. If a pitch hits a player, it is almost required that the opposing pitcher hits a batsman in return as a form of retaliation. Players who charge the mound when they are hit are often defended by teammates, coaches, and commentators as doing their duty for themselves and their team. It is a feeling that the pitcher “had it coming” and deserved retaliation with fists.
In the most recent baseball brawl, St. Louis Cardinal’s slugger, Tino Martinez was hit by a pitch from Arizona pitcher, Miguel Batista. After the play, Batista glared at Martinez as if to say, “I meant to do it.” A play later, as Martinez trotted off the field, he went after Batista and a brief bench-clearing brawl ensued. In response to the fight, Major League Baseball suspended Batista for 10 games and Martinez for four. In addition, Cardinal’s pitcher Jeff Fassero was suspended for three games, along with St. Louis Manager, Tony La Russa.
After the game, La Russa placed the blame on the Diamondback’s pitcher.
“My only comment is about the perception fans get, because we had more guys fined, that the bad guys Sunday were the Cardinals," La Russa said. "It's the opposite. The bad guy was the Arizona guy who instigated the whole thing."
Despite the fact that Martinez was the player that charged the mound, Batista was penalized for "inciting a bench-clearing incident.” This shows that in baseball it is expected to retaliate on a pitcher if it seems that he has thrown at the batter intentionally. Otherwise, Martinez would have been the one that was more strictly punished. Instead, television sports analysts and commentators defended his actions. They argued that Batista deserved what he got, and that Martinez had the right to go after him.
However, why was a fight necessary? If it was obvious that Batista was in the wrong, than why was he not ejected from the game in the first place, instead of waiting for the brawl to occur?
Martinez himself felt that there was nothing wrong with his actions that afternoon.
“I thought I did the right thing," Martinez said. "I have no regrets… I thought he ignited the whole thing."
St. Louis pitcher, Jeff Fassero, who was ejected from the game for hitting Arizona’s Luis Gonzalez with a pitch, made it clear that his retaliation was no accident.
"I don't play this new style of baseball," Fassero said after the game. "I still believe in the old ways, settling scores for teams and stuff like that. I think that's how baseball should be played."
In today’s sports world, Fassero is in the majority. Bench-clearing brawls have become part of baseball just like how hockey fights are an accepted and enjoyed part of the game. Stadiums erupt with cheering when fights take place. Hockey teams even use fighting as a strategy to get fans involved in games. Fighting appeals to an American society that craves violence. Just like in the movies, violence in sport excites spectators and gets their blood flowing.
During the telecasts of physical games like hockey and football there is extensive coverage of violent or excessively rough play. Often clips of particularly violent acts are replayed in promotional segments to try to attract viewers to tune in to upcoming contests. Throughout the airing of the game, broadcast commentary builds up the “sport as war” metaphor and replays violent hits in slow motion and close-ups camera shots. The bodies of players are transformed into weapons and injuries are considered “part of the job.”
It is blatantly clear when watching a hockey telecast that violence is an emphasized part of the game. In a recent NHL playoff game between the Ottawa Senators and the Philadelphia Flyers, body-checks, rough play and fighting were clearly considered something that viewers wanted to see.
One of Philadelphia’s star players, Jeremy Roenick, did not hide his intentions for the game.
“I am going to hit someone hard,” said Roenick.
The media transforms today’s sports figures into heroes and instruments of war. The parallels between sport and war are drawn continuously and images are constantly overlapping. In sports telecasts, commentators use words such as: “battling,“ “blitz,” “trenches,” “attack,” and “sacked” to describe actions in sport.
Some members of the media, like Pardon the Interruption’s Michael Wilbon, want hockey fighting eliminated from the sport completely.
“Anything that takes one's eye away from the skill and artistry of the best players in the world in my mind undermines the product,” said Wilbon.
If not eliminated, Wilbon says that fighting could at least be reduced by suspending coaches along with “goons” involved in fights.
“It is the coach who orders the player to do his dirty work, and it has been embraced in the professional hockey culture,” said Wilbon.
Like hockey, violence is ever-present in other physical games, like football and lacrosse, in which players are required to tackle or body-check opponents as part of the game. Football is so violent that each year there are countless injuries at all levels of competition.
According to NFL enthusiast, Mark Shetsky, violent collisions and vicious hits are what fans want to see.
“A man’s got to have his football on Monday nights,” said Shetsky. “We are hunter-warriors and we need a little brutality in our entertainment… I want to see a Buffalo Bill take the head off a New York Jet and then drop to his knees to thank God for the maiming.”
There are many theories about why fans enjoy watching violence in sports. Former New York Giants coach, Allie Sherman thought that it was because violence lets fans escape their own boring lives.“The cosmetic of going to a ball game, with its violence, skill and tactics, gives people a vehicle whereby they can break out of that drab and monotonous way of life they have or that job they truly dislike,” Sherman said.
A common theory behind the appeal of violence in sport is that it serves as a release of pent-up feelings of hostility. For example, by watching two hockey players pound on each other, fans are able to release feelings of aggression without actually throwing any punches.
Whatever the reason, Americans crave physicality and violence in their sports and that is not about to change.