HIGH-larious Defense of Fighting

Wow, just when I thought the Ultimate Fighting On Ice fans couldn't get any worse, we're treated to this steaming pile of garbage.

Take note the "How to win an argument" section:

"I don't want my children to watch a game in which I have to tell them that fighting is acceptable."
First of all, most fights are a response to a perceived wrong. Do you really want your kid to turn the other cheek to everyone he meets in life who tries to take advantage of him and his friends?

More importantly, this is professional sport. If your kid watches NASCAR, does he expect to drive bumper-to-bumper at 200 mph down a city street? If he watches wrestling, does he expect to be allowed to deliver forearm shivers and body slams? Professional sports operate under a specific set of rules.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

NASCAR operates in a controlled environment and not on public streets. Pro wrestling is fake.

NEXT!

"That fight last week probably cost Todd Fedoruk his career."
If it weren't for fighting, Fedoruk wouldn't have had a career.

And this proves what? Maybe Fedoruk needs a different career????

NEXT!

"Hockey is the only sport that allows fighting."
It's also the only sport that uses a puck. Baseball is the only one that uses bases. Each sport has its own peculiarities and fighting has always been a part of hockey.

Typical UFOI fan evasion. Ever notice how when the batter charges the mound he doesn't take his bat and that the players who come out of the dugout to join the fight don't bring their bats to the party either? Maybe it is because they know that doing so would get them a suspension more than three times as long as Chris Simon got for his stick swinging.

NEXT!

"The NHL Players' Association should step in to curb fighting in order to prevent injuries to its members."
The fighters are PA members, too. How can the PA follow a course of action that would deprive them of their jobs?

#1. Which is the exact problem with the NHLPA. They shouldn't be so much concerned about jobs but about player safety.

#2. They should also realize that the goon dropped off the roster and out of the ranks of the Union would be replaced by a skill player so the Union membership remains the same.

NEXT!

"This is 2007. These barbaric acts belong in the past."
Then watch figure skating. There's no constitutional requirement to watch hockey. The people who attend games, and the people who play the game, are overwhelmingly in favor of keeping fighting.

The fact is that the vast majority of people who complain about fighting in hockey don't watch the games. Furthermore, there's no evidence that they'd watch if fighting were eliminated.

Which is why when the Olympics come on, the coverage and the ratings outpace the NHL, but the Olympics don't have any fighting in them.

Though I will grant you, if you want to have your Federal Hockey League, you can have it. We won't complain about it nor watch it.

NEXT!

"Too many fights are staged. They're not part of the game, just two guys who agree to go after each other."
There's some truth to that. But hockey is, above all, entertainment. When the fights — even the staged fights — occur, the rink comes alive. Fans love it. These two guys are willing co-combatants.

What's the problem?

What's the problem? Well aside it from being a "barbaric act that belongs in the past," it undermines the whole "polices the game" and "rights a wrong" that you clowns love to spout.

So is it vigilante justice or is it entertainment?

NEXT!

"Too many players are getting hurt in hockey fights."
The problem is much more complex than that. Too many players are getting hurt. Period. Some of it has to do with equipment. Some of it has to do with the fact that hockey is a high-contact sport and injuries are inevitable.

The game is such these days that a lot of players don't care whether there's a puck on the ice or not

They're just out there to run other players. And they're causing injuries.

In an earlier era, those players would have been held accountable. But with the instigator rule, and the low-scoring games that put a premium on power plays, they're left alone. If the league scraps the instigator rule and keeps the fighters, those guys would think twice. And there would be fewer injuries.

In the long run, fighting doesn't cause injuries; it prevents them.

Ah yes, shift gears again and blame the equipment along with the rules.

Once again a UFOI fan comes up woefully short in defending the craft. Don't worry though, I'll be moving through the rest of their mealy mouth arguments.

Oh, and I voted about three times already in that poll on that article BTW.