Violence in Sports
Posted by Chad Kettner on August 15, 2007
We, as humans, have been enamoured by sporting events for thousands of years. Prehistoric art painted on cave walls in France portrays evidence of ritual archery as being a leisurely activity. Captain James Cook, upon being the first Western visitor to the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, saw the native people surfing. When I visited the Mayan ruins of Tikal, in Guatemala, I heard of the Mesoamerican ballgame in which two teams (with a varying number of players) would hit a rubber ball back and forth, attempting to cause the other team to be unable to return. In some cases, war captives would play the game with the loser being decapitated for blood sacrifice.
In modern society we continue to be entertained by sports. Many times we too, much like the Mayans, take it quite seriously.
In Kelowna last month a young referee, Brandon Wright, was confronted by two players following an issuing of a red card (automatic ejection). The player then grabbed his collar and wrestled him to the ground. Wright managed to free himself from this attack before being crushed by a larger set man named Mark. Eventually, Wright was able to call for help and everything was cleared up. He left having cleat marks on his arm and various bruises across his body.
While not everybody gets this angry over sports, this kind of ridiculous behaviour seems to be happening more frequently. In the last five years we have seen everything from NBA players, who are making millions of dollars a year, getting in brawls with the opposing team’s fans to hockey mom’s screaming at junior league referees to the point of legitimate fear being evident. We have seen the Chilean U-20 soccer team fighting with police in Toronto and the always infamous Todd Bertuzzi sucker punch of Steve Moore. The list could go on, and on, and on.
If we continue to accept these kinds of actions without punishment, the frequency will continue to increase much like unpunished ignorance of the speed limit would cause an increase in the amount of people speeding on our roads.
Actions must be taken on each level. Not just legal action, but social action. It’s our job as much as anybody else’s to put an end to these unacceptable occurrences.
There’s a reason nobody is playing the Mesoamerican ball game anymore – and there’s no reason we need to be taking our sporting activities that seriously either.
