Fight club: Fists fly high in NHL; not so much in NBA, NFL

By MIKE PATTON | Nashville Voice

NHL, NFL and the NBA are professional sports leagues that entertain us all.

The highs and lows of watching the sport capture us all. And each and every time they are on, people get lost in the moment and forget what all may be going on around them.

While sports fans have loved the world of sports and what it has provided, you also have to think about the questions sports spark in your mind.

One question that comes to mind is the physicality when it comes to the NHL compared to the NBA and the NFL.

When you watch professional hockey, you have to be amazed by the fact that men with size and speed can move around on skates like that.

What is more amazing than that, though, is the rules that go along with the NHL. The NHL seems to go by the rules of letting people fight it out.

Any time there is an issue between players, it seems there is a fight that breaks out. Unlike the NFL or NBA, the fight is not immediately broken up.

It goes on for a while until it is broken up by the officials.

At that point, the members of the fight usually go to the penalty box.

A lot of the times, the fights are premeditated. The players immediately drop their gloves in a faceoff and go at it right then and there. And along the premeditated fights, some of these vendettas on the ice end up carrying over for a while.

Seems rough right?

Well let any hockey fan tell you and they will say it’s part of the game and how they are.

The dueling players aren’t labeled “thugs” or any other bad words. What they are called is “passionate” or players who “handled their business”.

Now, imagine if this was to happen in the NBA or NFL. What is there was some premeditated things happen on the court?

Of course, The Malice at the Palace is something that would be badly looked upon in any sport. The players were actually in the crowd at that time.

But what is funny is when players get into each other’s faces on the court or get into some pushing and shoving on the court—heck, some may even take a swing at another player while in the heat of battle—what usually happens in those situations is a suspension.

The funny thing is the players involved in these incidents are competing at the highest levels of competition just like NHL players are, but instead of that understanding there, the players are often called “thugs” or other things for trash talk that happens on the court and can get a little overboard.

The NHL, NBA and NFL all have talented players across the board. But the way the physical nature of both sports is viewed is highly interesting.

There’s also the unavoidable fact that the NHL is predominantly staffed by white players while the NBA and NFL employ predominantly black players.

You have to wonder why one sport’s violence is loved and even encouraged while even trash talk in the other two sports mentioned gets looked down upon.

One has to wonder if the views of physical play in the different sports have a direct correlation with the number of African-Americans playing it.

There may be nothing to it, but that issue may be everything to it as well.