Ben wrote:
 
>>>Hey a fight makes a good spectacle.<<<
 
Vicki replied:
 
>>I definitely am in the minority here! Maybe if you had sons out there
playing you would feel differently about that part of the sport. I can
hardly be detached about seeing someone lose an eye or lose their motor
capability, whether it's my son or not! Yes, of course play goes on and it's
a contact/collision sport! In a THN article Jeff Libby said, if he had to do
it all over again he wished he would have worn the shield.<<
 
Ben replied:
 
>Maybe if I was out of school and had kids I'd understand better. I do know
that parents, especially mothers, have an overprotectiveness about them. And
I've changed my mind somewhat, I used to think college hockey should drop
the game DQ for fighting, now I think that's fine. On USCHO, a fellow Mav
fan pointed out that in colleges, fights are usually the last resort of
retalition and usually only come about after a ref loses control of a game
due to non-calls earlier.
 
> As far as the eye thing, hockey fights rarely last long enough for serious
> damage to be done, and those that do are the exception to the rule, not
> the rule themselves. I don't think you should regulate something based on
> a minority of the cases, unless that minority becomes significant, which I
> guess is a debateable %. You sound like the % you'd say is significant is
> a lot lower than what most people would.<
>
If I'm wrong, please correct me, but I think Vicki's response was a
non-sequitur, and a mixing of issues.  I believe Jeff Libby's injury had
nothing to do with a fight. I agree with Ben that a fight is a spectacle,
and that (at least in the games I see) players are rarely injured in fights.
Where I differ with some folks is that they believe that it's an inevitable,
harmless, or useful spectacle, or a spectacle that enhances the game,  while
I believe that it is a useless spectacle that detracts from the game.  I
also agree with Ben on the game DQ for fighting, and also with the local
high school (Massachusetts, don't know whether it's a league, team, or
state) regulation that fighting is a game misconduct AND you sit the next
game.
 
[. . .]
 
Clay
 
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