Violence in sport is not an oxymoron in my opinion because it can easy get to that level based on competitivety alone. Physicality in sports is far to great and sports to some degree brings out the inner animal in us. Think about, what other forces can cause fights in games governed by rules. It’s sports, and chaos is always welcome so the  people watching want to be entertained. Nobody wants to see a love fest out there and this makes violence in sport all the more plausible because of how serious the game is. The question still remains; is it apropos to commit violence as self defense in sports? Also when does competition become so heated that it turns to violence? Everytime something irrational happens this discussion pops up.

Recall the Ron Artest debacle. Ron Artest became a house hold name for loosing it and going into the stands punching people. This type of deal has never been done before where a player runs up in the stands fighting guys. Prior to the brawl Ben Wallace retaliated for a foul committed against him by Ron and shoved Ron in the neck. I can imagine that Ron was not pleased by this type of aggression but chose to keep his cool by laying on the scorers table. Already pissed beyond belief, a beer that somebody’s been drinking comes down hitting him in the neck. Ron immediately runs into the stands after the guy and all Hell breaks lose at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit.

Do I agree with Ron Artest actions, no I don’t but I most definitely understand. He has a right to not be harmed by anyone and once this line is crossed he has a flight or fight response to attend to.  He was in a prone position and who’s to say that more drinks wouldn’t fly and bust him up. What if it hit him in the eye, now what?  Granted, he is a little crazy for jumping into the stands and trying to fight everybody but he is not at fault for blacking out like he did. There definitely needs to be a barrier between the fans and players. Once these barriers are broken, people need to hold themselves accountable.  His actions did not warrant a one year suspension based on the fact that he was attacked twice.  How would you react in that situation?

As a person that has been heckled before, I know how the fans in the stands can fire you up. In a game against Southwestern Oregon C.C., the fans heckled me with racial epithets that every point I scored, I would curse them out. It wasn’t about the game at that point, my drive was to shut the crowd up. It gives me chills thinking about how mad I had gotten that day. I mean, I wanted to fight everybody that wasn’t in a Portland C.C. uniform. Players heckle too. To the point you want to slap them upside the head. Dennis Rodman was an expert at getting under a players skin. Pulling people’s shorts down, touching and grabbing at players to get a violent or aggressive reaction. Sometimes that’s the game plan to get the best player to react violently to get the player out of his/her comfort zone. Take the hard foul delivered by Robert Horry on Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire runs off the bench for a 1 game suspension. San Antonio Spurs takes the best of 7 series over the Phoenix Suns. The game is chess, not checkers

The media does not help to prevent this occurrence but in fact the media embraces violence. Ever since the media inception, it has had the capability to sensationalize any aspect of life is far greater then experiencing it first hand. I call the media the middle man, the middle man to the chaos that people enjoy. People don’t understand how much the media has a grip on their life. People enjoy violence, sex and ironically, touching stories. The media allows access to this way of thinking by always exploiting it continuously and consistently.  This does not help violent encounters in sport what so ever.

But I digress back to my previous s point: Proscriptive rules, categorical imperatives and all other unbendable rules should include some subjectivity. The NBA has done some good by rescinding technicals from certain guys in the playoffs recently (since2008) to prevent suspension. I believe that 2007 was Phoenix’s year to win an NBA Championship if they had Amare Stoudemire all 7 games. The NBA board members should have paid attention to this but instead they let the Phoenix suns most dominant player get suspended for the silly rule that says you can’t leave the bench area during an altercation on court. Robert Horry’s foul was unnecessarily hard and Amare acted on pure human instincts. In an 82 game season and especially in the playoffs, the guys around you become brothers. He reacted in defense and there was no retaliation. That is a stupid rule.  Amare did not have a past in fighting or leaving the bench so why punish him?

The benefit of the doubt should always be given to the players for no one knows how they were conditioned as athletes or their experiences. In my opinion, the referee can prevent things from escalating to the point of mass chaos such as the brawl between the Florida Marlins and the Washington Nationals. The umpires were well aware that they were beaning Nyjer Morgan as retaliation for being to rough at home base the night before. If a guy keeps throwing heat at your body of course hot heads are going to prevail and because the umps let it go a brawl erupted. They are the people that implement the rules in a basketball game. A ref should employ any tactics to make sure the players on both teams and the fans can coexist with each other. Violence in sports shouldn’t rest on the players so much, it is more of the conditions that cause violence. The people in the business suits and stripes need to do a better job.

Lumpkin, A., Stoll, S.K., & Beller, J.M. (2003). Sport Ethics: Application for Fair Play (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.  ISBN: 0072552522, 68-83