Long ago, hockey used to be my favorite sport. (Then the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas of all godforsaken hockey cesspools.)
Hockey as a sport is significantly diminished by its allowance, and encouragement, of fighting. The big, dirty secret of course being that the NHL (though there certainly are other hockey leagues...) is deathly afraid of eliminating an entire swath of their shaky fanbase by coming down hard on fighting.
But as far as I'm concerned, screw those guys. Get them outta the hockey stadium and send them to the professional wrestling pit where they belong. Preserving fighting in hockey is as absurd as preserving car crashes in auto racing.
Of course, football has its own liabilities -- namely all the dives. The 2002 WC must have looked like a ballet to most casual observers. I know it did to me. I'm glad to see the "simulation" rule being put into effect (as poor as the call was in the first Porto-Depor CL game yesterday). But divemasters should be wearing Speedos, not cleats.
Hockey as a sport is significantly diminished by its allowance, and encouragement, of fighting. The big, dirty secret of course being that the NHL (though there certainly are other hockey leagues...) is deathly afraid of eliminating an entire swath of their shaky fanbase by coming down hard on fighting.
But as far as I'm concerned, screw those guys. Get them outta the hockey stadium and send them to the professional wrestling pit where they belong. Preserving fighting in hockey is as absurd as preserving car crashes in auto racing.
Of course, football has its own liabilities -- namely all the dives. The 2002 WC must have looked like a ballet to most casual observers. I know it did to me. I'm glad to see the "simulation" rule being put into effect (as poor as the call was in the first Porto-Depor CL game yesterday). But divemasters should be wearing Speedos, not cleats.
