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Forum nameOkay Sports
Topic subjectI mean fighting in football is pointless. There is a lot less in hockey now
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=8&topic_id=2650367&mesg_id=2650947
2650947, I mean fighting in football is pointless. There is a lot less in hockey now
Posted by ConcreteCharlie, Mon Apr-16-18 03:48 PM
If you look at fighting in the NHL, it is WAY down. Entire teams have less than one guy had in the 80s or even ten years ago when guys like Kenopka and Neil were punching people in the face for a living. In fact you can barely make a living punching people in the face anymore, and you can't if that is all you do. I think the decline in fighting has let some guys get a little out of pocket and wouldn't mind seeing a return of the heavyweight to put some of these cheap little pests back in their place. The league does a weak job of it.

In the NFL the guys wear so much equipment and shit that there isn't much point to it unless they were to remove their helmets and square off like in hockey. Doing that on firm ground and with the size of some of those guys would be a recipe for disaster.

Baseball fights are mostly just exercises in hot-headedness and making it look like you'll stick up for the hot head on your side. Sometimes they get good but not often. I love the guys in the bullpen looking at each other like "do we have to go on the field or fucking not?" in the early stages of a fight. To me it's dumb and should come out of the game but I guess the "code" is a little more clear there than it is in the NHL, where it's complex beyond the point of comprehension and now really means very little anyway.

The NBA is the most interesting one. I was watching that throwback video with all the Boston and Detroit fights and shit. I don't know, on one hand I do think it policed some cheap stuff, on the other it seemed like a lot of it was done to try to intimidate star players. There was also a lot of sucker punching or nailing guys in the air. I do think fighting has a place in basketball and that Stern's NBA really had a knee-jerk reaction to it. I get that, right or wrong (obviously wrong), the league has to hold itself to a higher standard in terms of image, behavior, etc because it's a black league with a mostly non-black audience. But at the same time, there is stuff that can go on on the court and get out of control and, frankly, the only remedy is to stand up for yourself or your teammate. That shouldn't be punished SO harshly