Why do we allow fighting in hockey but not in other sports? It would be nice to see a defensive or offensive lineman going HAM on one of the other players especially a QB. Just wreck that team's prospects for the season.

Proponents of fighting in hockey:

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Those who defend fighting in hockey say that it helps deter other types of rough play, allows teams to protect their star players, and creates a sense of solidarity among teammates.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_in_ice_hockey

Texagsubscriber said:

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Why do we allow fighting in hockey but not in other sports? It would be nice to see a defensive or offensive lineman going HAM on one of the other players especially a QB. Just wreck that team's prospects for the season.

Proponents of fighting in hockey:

Quote:

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Those who defend fighting in hockey say that it helps deter other types of rough play, allows teams to protect their star players, and creates a sense of solidarity among teammates.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_in_ice_hockey

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Because it's beyond idiotic to punch someone with a ton of plastic on with bare knuckles?

It's technically allowed in baseball too...

Texagsubscriber said:

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It would be nice to see a defensive or offensive lineman going HAM on one of the other players especially a QB. Just wreck that team's prospects for the season.

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Super classy.

I'll bet you're the guy that thinks it's funny to punch other guys in the nuts and run away.

Or the back of the head ....

Ifishandlie said:

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Or the back of the head ....

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I attended a minor league hockey game in Alabama once years ago and the few people in attendance were completely disinterested in the game till a fight broke out at which point they erupted into cheers. It was almost like it was scripted because the refs basically took a water break for 20 minutes while several brawls were going on all over the ice. It feels like the MMA has kind if filled the void for blood lust do we really need this in other sports?

I actually don't want to see it any sport but I'm surprised that it still exists. Is hockey not good enough on its own?

Texagsubscriber said:

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I actually don't want to see it any sport but I'm surprised that it still exists. Is hockey not good enough on its own?

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Hockey is weird sport to most of the public, there's weird rules that most people don't get.

In general the league won't be able to divorce it, they need it to be honest.

I'd type more but I'm lazy

Why can you talk trash in basketball, but not football?

Texagsubscriber said:

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I actually don't want to see it any sport but I'm surprised that it still exists. Is hockey not good enough on its own?

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Here's a good explanation from Reddit of fighting in hockey

TL;DR: Hockey is such a fast and aggressive sport that fighting is a method of self-policing the game. There is etiquette to fighting in Hockey believe it or not. (see the video at the bottom of the guy asking permission to fight before they start).

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It helps to remember that fights in hockey are 99% consensual. If you don't want to fight you turn your back and that's it. There are players that fight and players that don't, and it's not really a machismo/honor thing that you MUST fight. No one thinks less of you for not being a fighter.
If you jump someone who is NOT looking for a fight you are usually going to get tossed from the game and probably suspended for a few games to boot. It's not OK to blind-side someone who is not likewise spoiling for a fight and generally speaking that is frowned upon.

So the minor penalties and general lack of punishment is only in the case of two people who have collaboratively decided to go at it, which is true for almost every fight you see. They are pre-arranged (often at the face-off) and mutually agreed. At that point, two consenting adults doing what they want, basically, and the refs leave it alone until someone is at risk of getting seriously hurt -- usually once someone goes down and it's no longer a standing fight, or if other people are getting involved, or if one person is effectively incapacitated, etc.

To some degree hockey is a self-regulated game. Refs are there for line calls, not necessarily behavior control. 10 people flying around a small ice surface at 40km/h with wooden sticks can REALLY hurt each other while the ref is looking the other way if they want to.

To avoid this, fighting is used as a pressure relief... all the pent up aggression you feel for the wrongs and slights done to your team goes into cheering for your guy in the fight. Afterward everyone chills out. This is generally true even if the two guys fighting aren't the actual guys you were mad at. But the thing is, everyone on your team is going to be mad at someone different for some random thing that happened, so it's not practical to expect everyone will "pay" individually.

This mostly works because most players aren't *******s. If they do something to earn your ire it was probably by accident or a "one time" thing. It's unlikely you'll remember it for more than 5 minutes and unlikely that guy is going to specifically tick you off again. So the fight serves to release the cumulative pressure of all those little things, not necessarily any specific incident.

Where this fails is if there is just that one total dick on a team that is constantly cheap-shotting people or otherwise behaving in a ******y way not consistent with the overall tone of the game. Especially if that person keeps doing it even after a fight or two. At some point the other team is going to remember his number and a "generic fight" won't fix the issue. That guy now has a target painted on his back and at some point -- maybe not even that game but in a future game -- someone is going to risk getting tossed from the game/suspended to teach that specific player a lesson.

Though usually half of that guy's own team are just as happy to watch him get creamed because, honestly, he IS a dick. We'd never say it out loud of course, team solidarity, rah rah rah... but at some point people get what they deserve and everyone on both sides knows it.

EDIT: Others replies here have also made the very good point that I feel worth highlighting... a hockey fight is not like MMA. It's really hard to get leverage on ice and there's only so much weight you can get behind a punch. And the minute it goes to the ice the refs do get involved to stop it. The dangerous parts of hockey are at speed near the boards. A hockey fight is practically tame by comparison to what can happen there.

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Some shoving should be allowed...

Hockey players don't really go "ham" on each other during a fight. As that Reddit thread explains, there's a pretty lengthy unwritten code around fighting and fighting is not about making a guy get medical attention.

I suppose you could try to build that into football, but it'd take awhile.

And there is such a machismo thing in the sport of football, I'm not sure the sport could handle a hockey like fighting code.

I think fights would continue to devolve into truly serious and harmful events even if a level of fighting was allowed.

Hockey fighting is great, not because it's a fight but for the reasons laid out in the Reddit post above.

Fighting is an important part of the game & there is no reason to try & change that. Plus they can be fun to watch.

Also, the fighting has calmed down quite a bit from the '80s & '90s