Have we Gone Soft?

The question is simple: Have we as a society gone soft?  The reaction to the Xavier-Cincinatti fight was an embarrassment. We have gotten to the point where every time a fight breaks out in a sporting event, the so called "experts" act like the participants need to go to therapy and take a long hard look at their life. I am not saying that fighting should be a major part of team sports, or advocating ridiculous brawls like the melee at Auburn Hills or the sucker punch that Lagarrette Blount threw, but there is a time and a place where fighting in sports is necessary.



To understand why fights are a necessary part of sports, you have to first look at the reasons fights can start. Anyone who has ever played team sports knows the value of a team. After sticking out training camp, road trips, and sometimes a ballistic coach, your teammates become your family. Whoever you are playing becomes your enemy. And if one of your enemies attacks your family, you better let your teammate know you have his back. If someone ever gave me a serious cheap shot, and my teammates didn't get my back, I would call the whole team into question. The other main reason for a fight in sports, is if a whole team is playing dirty. If a team is constantly taking cheap shots, throwing at hitters, or going at knees, if the other team doesn't respond physically, you better believe that teams will keep on doing coming at them for the rest of the season. To quote Stringer Bell, "It's about sending a message."

We also have to understand how we got to a point of getting so upset over one fight. I blame texting. 200 years ago, if you had a problem with someone, you challenged them to a duel. 100 years ago, you settled it with fists. 50 years ago, you talked to them face to face.  10 years ago you called them. And now, people text to avoid confrontation. In our current world of anonymous comments where people can hide behind a computer screen to say their true feelings, actually confronting someone is unheard of.

Hockey is the only sport that has the unwritten rules of the game perfectly wrinkled into the written rules. In the NHL, teams have players on the team specifically there to be enforcers. If a player on an opposing team does anything that needs to be dealt with, the other team will send their enforcer to either take out the other player, or drop the gloves with him. But if this same sequence of events happens in any other sport, people react like they just found out Ryan Braun is on steroi...never mind. In soccer, if you blatantly flop and get a call you are a hero to your teammates, in hockey, you're not leaving the rink without a broken nose. It's no coincidence that the Capitals resurgence synced up perfectly to when they signed Donald Brashear.

The most important thing about fights, is that they do help teams. They usually bring teams together and can light a fire under them for the rest of the season. It also shows that teams have the most important thing of all, an unyielding desire to win. Would the Bad Boy Pistons have been successful if they weren't motherf*****s if you messed with them? Absolutely not.

Once again, this post is not supposed to excuse all fighting in sports, there are still many instances where your play on the field can speak way louder than fists. But sometimes things do get heated, and for people to think that players should be kicked off of the teams at Xavier and Cincinnati for their involvement in a fight between two rivals is absurd.