March 11, 2004
When a Sport becomes a Crime
When does an action within a sports game warrant outside intervention? A sucker punch by Todd Bertuzzi resulted in a broken neck for Steve Moore. Now, as often happens, people are asking questions.
So who's to blame?
Well, obviously, Bertuzzi is to blame. Ultimately, he made the choice to sucker punch, and that led to the injury. The NHL is making a weak example of him, though I think that criminal charges should be filed. Why? Simply, if I were playing Ice Hockey with a bunch of people at a local rink, and did the same thing with the same result, I would be charged with a crime. Being a 'professional' should not make you immune to prosecution for things that you do while performing your job.
Blame the NHL too
I don't follow hockey enough to know if Bertuzzi is considered a 'goon' or not. The fact is that the NHL fosters an atmosphere where these incidents are allowed, and even encouraged. Even if Bertuzzi doesn't fall into this category (and I believe he probably does), there is no doubt that many teams like to have the 'goon' element. The code phrase is 'physical player', but we all know what that means. If you have any doubt as to the NHLs stance on this, look at the response. The hit occurred Monday night, the suspension/fine came on Thursday, AFTER there were suggestions of a criminal investigation. The NHL is not responding to the event itself, it's trying to suggest that it is self-policing, so that outside agencies (IE the police) don't have to get involved. Though, if the NHL was really serious, this response would have happened, if not Monday night, early on Tuesday.
Now, before I am tarred and feather as a non-violence nut who wants to water down sports, let me point something out. I like football - and it is arguable the most violent of the big-4 sports. But, it is a controlled violence. If someone sucker punched another player in the NFL, what do you think the response would have been? The NFL doesn't tolerate it . And, while things do happen, I think the NFL is the game where you are least likely to see the free for alls and sucker punches. Are there dirty plays? Yes. Do bad things happen? Yes. But, on the whole, it seems to happen less frequently, and it is responded to very quickly.
Yes, There is a risk of injury in any sport, and Moore accepted that risk when he suited up. That doesn't mean, however, that any injury is therefore acceptable. The NHL should crack down on the goon element of the game - and Bertuzzi should face the music.
Comments:Mike said (at March 11, 2004 03:03 AM):
Well, first, Bertuzzi wasn't really considered a goon before this. He's actually an All-Star caliber forward, and his absence is a huge blow to the chances of his team in the playoffs.
Second, I don't think that you can really hold the NHL accountable -- Bertuzzi doesn't have a history of doing this, and didn't (to my knowledge) make any threats on Moore. It's ludicrous to hold the NHL (or any employer) responsible for their employees behaviour 100% of the time when there's no indication that a particular player poses a danger or threat to another player.
Third, it's not like every night some player gets cornered and clubbed within an inch of their life by the other team. The last incident like this came a couple of years ago, when erstwhile Boston Bruin Marty McSorley hit Donald Brashear in the head with his stick, an incident that also resulted in the player being suspended and given a jail sentence (18 months, if I recall correctly).
Fourth, comparing the NFL with the NHL is not really comparing apples to apples. The NFL has never had fighting as an element. It wasn't too long ago that the NHL would have games with 200+ penalty minutes and bench-clearing brawls, and they were viewed as business as usual. Also, there have been plenty of NFL players that skirt the line between hard-nosed play and cheap-shot artistry -- Dick Butkis spring quickly to mind, as does Warren Sapp's hit against an O-lineman on Green Bay's team from a year or so ago.
Fifth, not that this excuses Bertuzzi's hit, but this was apparently in retaliation for a cheap hit that Moore gave against a Vancouver player in an earlier game. In the old days, this was met with a fight in that game, clean and fair, and that would have been the end of it. Now, with instigator penalties to punish fights from starting, it has encouraged more marginal players to play a little cheaper because they have less to worry about because it really hurts a team to deal with the problem in the regular way.
Lastly, the NHL's "fault" in all of this is that they are in between the "good old days" when bench-clearning brawls were a normal and expected part of life in the NHL, and completely eliminating fighting altogether. Quite frankly, the NHL should either relax the rules against fighting back to the way it was (no instigator penalties, etc.), or ban it completely (college hockey doesn't seem to suffer from the lack of fighting).
Henry said (at March 11, 2004 04:02 AM):
You made my point for me. I admitted I don't know specifics about this guy, but I know the NHL enough to know that sucker punching and other actions, are standard fare. While they may not be NHL sanctioned, they are not addressed beyond a few penalty minutes. If fights resulted in suspension, then the players wouldn't engage in them so much.
Now, I'm not saying the NHL should be held criminally liable (though I think the player should). I'm saying, in essence what you said about the 'Glory days'. The NFL has long tolerated these behaviors and they shouldn't. Neither the NHL, nor MLB, nor basketball have 'fighting' as part of the rules. Yet, all of them to lesser degrees have these 'bench clearing' moments. Why? Because the response to them is not a deterrent. So, I think my point still stands. Blame the player - it was his action. But, the NHL has fostered an atmosphere which allows people to even attempt it.
Mike said (at March 11, 2004 05:08 AM):
Truthfully, Henry, I'm not sure what your point is -- your response has a bunch of flaws in it.
First, to address the claim that I know the NHL enough to know that sucker punching and other actions, are standard fare, I challenge you to point out other incidents of similar severity to what Bertuzzi did. I've already given you one, with McSorley's stick to the head of Brashear, but two incidents do not an epidemic make. Also, what do you consider "other actions"? Since you say that they're are not addressed beyond a few penalty minutes, I can only assume that you are also lumping things like crosschecking, high sticking, roughing and other such actions in with the 'cheap shot' category. If so, why is the NFL somehow exempt from your condemnation, as they have penalties like roughing the passer, hits out of bounds, late hits, leading with the helmet and chop blocks as penalties as well.
Lastly, you're right that if the NHL really wanted to ban fighting it wouldn't be a five minute penalty. What, though, is the point? If fighting leads to incidents like this, why aren't there more of them happening? Otherwise, while it certainly is a valid and debatable point over wether fighting belongs in the game or not, it's orthogonal to this discussion.
Henry said (at March 11, 2004 05:15 AM):
It's relevant, because that's what caused this incident. Do all fights lead to broken necks? No. So, the fact that there has only been 2 is not the point. The point is that if the NHL was stricter against fighting, in general, the players wouldn't be so flagrant about it.
Look at the hit - they were no where near another. You, yourself, pointed out that this was a retaliation. My point is that the NHL allows these things, because (up till now) their response to it has been minimal.
They suspended Bertuzzi because he broke the guy's neck, but the actions that lead to that happens all the time in hockey. Bertuzzi was just unlucky, in that whatever reasons, his actions led to a serious injury, where most just lead to fights.
It's part of the show, which is why the NHL doesn't respond to it.