mcarterbrown.com - View Single Post - Where does assault begin and sports end? What does MCB think?

stevedavidson · 03-24-2008, 07:15 PM

classic, just classic.

As a former hockey goalie (and loud-mouthed prick of a paintball player), here's me flippin you the bird just for the heck of it and now, my take:

Goalies are usually the 'emotional center' of a hockey team. Besides blocking shots, their job is to fire their guys up and insult, degrade, demean, anger and generally make life miserable for the other team.

Most (good) goalies I know are very good armchair psychologists who can zero in on a soft center after about two seconds into the first period. (I usually picked one or two players on the other team and needled them all game long - performing illegal things upon their bodies when they were trying to screen me in my goal and yelling insults across the ice when they were down the other end. They NEVER heard the end of it when I made a particularly good save against them and nothing was out of bounds as far as I was concerned - them, their intelligence or lack thereof, their probable non-human origin, their lack of skill, whatever it took.)

The goalie for the red team was doing his job during the fight - tying up a ref and hurling insults at the other team and the crowd. His rush down the ice was more for show than anything else (notice it happened at the end of the fight, not at the beginning) and he would have continued to allow the ref to 'hold him back' if there was any doubt in his mind about being able to take the other goalie. As the goalie, he could NOT remain out of the fight physically since everyone else was involved, but he must have been pretty angry to begin with, since he could have gone into a clinch with an opponent and just danced around. Instead, I gather that he sensed that his team was going to get the short end of the stick (pun intended) and figured 'in for a penny, in for a pound'; now he can fire his team up with his 'victory' and everyone can have a good laugh watching the tape, while knowing that no matter what happens on the ice in the future, their guy is gonna be right in the thick of it.

I don't know what his stats are, but he just did wonders for his team's morale. Winning the fight on the ice is a pretty darned good substitute for winning the game on goals. (May not have won, but we sure showed those pansies...)

This may also have been a set-up for future matches - making the other team fear them physically (jeez, even the goalie got into it) - much like the Philly Flyers did to the entire league in the 70s. (Broad Street Bullies - beat the crap out of the other team and it doesn't matter if they are better skaters, better puck handlers or better shots...)

Now, as for whether this is a crime or sport? The argument is moot. Its HOCKEY. I only really played for two reasons (well, 3, it helped that the Flyers practice rink was in my hometown and I got to play pick-up games with and against them) first was - I was pretty good for a high schooler and second because it gave me a legal excuse to be involved with physical mayhem. If you want a 'sport' that's for people who are afraid to get physical, try curling.

There is an interesting take on this from the insurance side of things: companies offer separate programs for the refs, the players, the physical arena and for the crowd - and on the crowd side, its divided into coverage for the usual stuff and separate coverage for things involving the game getting into the stands.

This is at least a tacit recognition on the part of the insurers that what happens on the field of play is a different reality from the rest of the world.

I once had the pleasure of watching a bench-emptier between the NY Master Blasters and the PA All Americans team. Lots of threats about lawsuits were made, but nothing ever transpired.

You never see lawsuits over what happens in the bottom of the pile during a football game...

At least on the part of those who play professional sports, there seems to be an unspoken agreement that what happens on the field stays on the field, so, I'd have to say (after a long winded stretch of BS) that unless somebody pulls a knife or a gun, or drags the public into it, its part of the sport and shouldn't see the inside of a courtroom.

03-24-2008, 07:15 PM	#10 (permalink)
stevedavidson MCB Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 372	classic, just classic. As a former hockey goalie (and loud-mouthed prick of a paintball player), here's me flippin you the bird just for the heck of it and now, my take: Goalies are usually the 'emotional center' of a hockey team. Besides blocking shots, their job is to fire their guys up and insult, degrade, demean, anger and generally make life miserable for the other team. Most (good) goalies I know are very good armchair psychologists who can zero in on a soft center after about two seconds into the first period. (I usually picked one or two players on the other team and needled them all game long - performing illegal things upon their bodies when they were trying to screen me in my goal and yelling insults across the ice when they were down the other end. They NEVER heard the end of it when I made a particularly good save against them and nothing was out of bounds as far as I was concerned - them, their intelligence or lack thereof, their probable non-human origin, their lack of skill, whatever it took.) The goalie for the red team was doing his job during the fight - tying up a ref and hurling insults at the other team and the crowd. His rush down the ice was more for show than anything else (notice it happened at the end of the fight, not at the beginning) and he would have continued to allow the ref to 'hold him back' if there was any doubt in his mind about being able to take the other goalie. As the goalie, he could NOT remain out of the fight physically since everyone else was involved, but he must have been pretty angry to begin with, since he could have gone into a clinch with an opponent and just danced around. Instead, I gather that he sensed that his team was going to get the short end of the stick (pun intended) and figured 'in for a penny, in for a pound'; now he can fire his team up with his 'victory' and everyone can have a good laugh watching the tape, while knowing that no matter what happens on the ice in the future, their guy is gonna be right in the thick of it. I don't know what his stats are, but he just did wonders for his team's morale. Winning the fight on the ice is a pretty darned good substitute for winning the game on goals. (May not have won, but we sure showed those pansies...) This may also have been a set-up for future matches - making the other team fear them physically (jeez, even the goalie got into it) - much like the Philly Flyers did to the entire league in the 70s. (Broad Street Bullies - beat the crap out of the other team and it doesn't matter if they are better skaters, better puck handlers or better shots...) Now, as for whether this is a crime or sport? The argument is moot. Its HOCKEY. I only really played for two reasons (well, 3, it helped that the Flyers practice rink was in my hometown and I got to play pick-up games with and against them) first was - I was pretty good for a high schooler and second because it gave me a legal excuse to be involved with physical mayhem. If you want a 'sport' that's for people who are afraid to get physical, try curling. There is an interesting take on this from the insurance side of things: companies offer separate programs for the refs, the players, the physical arena and for the crowd - and on the crowd side, its divided into coverage for the usual stuff and separate coverage for things involving the game getting into the stands. This is at least a tacit recognition on the part of the insurers that what happens on the field of play is a different reality from the rest of the world. I once had the pleasure of watching a bench-emptier between the NY Master Blasters and the PA All Americans team. Lots of threats about lawsuits were made, but nothing ever transpired. You never see lawsuits over what happens in the bottom of the pile during a football game... At least on the part of those who play professional sports, there seems to be an unspoken agreement that what happens on the field stays on the field, so, I'd have to say (after a long winded stretch of BS) that unless somebody pulls a knife or a gun, or drags the public into it, its part of the sport and shouldn't see the inside of a courtroom.