Wham! Whack! Thud! The player who has just been punched falls to the ice, unconscious. His opponent, a burly man of 6’ 7”, 260 lbs., dusts off his hands, picks up his gloves, and is ushered to the penalty box for a 5-minute major penalty. Fighting is an accepted part of the game of hockey, the only such sport where players can assault others and not get arrested for it.
Supposedly this qualifies as “fun”. Recently, however, the game of hockey, and indeed sports in general, has become less and less about having fun and more and more about the “fun” act of fighting. Some players look at it as a way to take out their frustration without getting penalized off the ice for their actions.
Several weeks ago, Boston Bruins defenseman Marty McSorley took out his frustration by swinging his stick at the head of Vancouver Canucks wing Donald Brashear. The league suspended McSorley for 23 games (the longest suspension ever in league history), investigated the incident and, convinced that justice had been served, stuck to their ruling. That was not the end, though, for McSorley. A week after the incident, he was charged with assault with a weapon by the Vancouver police, which if he is found guilty, can carry a sentence of prison time. This case sets a precedent in professional sports, because it is the first time law enforcement has gotten involved in an incident which occurs during a game. The NHL commissioner and others in the organization are very upset by the decision to involve law enforcement, because they feel it undermines their judgement, and the game of hockey.
This controversy has led people to wonder if law enforcement should be involved in sports-related issues. In terms of crimes committed outside the arena, law enforcement is in control, but once a game is being played, the players are governed by the rules of the league. Sports are a form of entertainment, for the athletes as well as the spectators use them as an escape from the real world. As soon as police become involved in sports-related incidents, especially in a game like hockey where violence is a pre-requisite (though not the main focus of the game, despite the direction in which it is headed), the game begins to lose its entertainment value. Hockey may have become increasingly violent over the past decade, but the league has implemented new safety rules and new regulations to keep it in check. I’m not condoning what Marty McSorley did, but I am saying that the police should have backed off and let league regulations dictate his punishment.
The NHL was correct for suspending McSorley. It taught him a lesson. Getting arrested for assault is only going to serve to make him and other players more wary of the way they play the game, and it will lose its entertainment value. Sports are supposed to be entertainment, not a vivid look into the world’s crime problems.
