Sports Violence: Should It Be Eliminated?

With the increase in society taking a stance against violence by many people, sports has become an area where some feel that the violent acts such as the hitting and fighting that occurs should be eliminated. You can not change something that has been around for so long because it would change the aspect of the game to something completely different. The elimination of violence should not be done in sport because the violence is a part of the game which would only hurt its popularity.

The theories of sport mimicking society, violence as a result of an incentive, and the influence of the crowd behavior are the theories responsible for the increasing violence in sports. Most people when involved in a highly stressful situation where violence is around would probably resort to a fight to resolve their differences. In sport, why should we expect anything different? In events such as hockey games, where people are expected to hit and make body contact, sooner or later a fight will break out and the fans will yell and scream for their favorite player involved.

Two standard hockey pucks

Chicago girls at Sokol Sports, Prague, Austria (L...

North American (U.S. and Canada) cities in which a...

Like anything, if people around us are applauding us for a certain act we have done, we will try to do it over so that we will continue to be praised. In sports, there are some players whose only role on the team is to protect and enforce the unwritten rules of the game such as in hockey where it is not right to fight or hit a Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux type of star player. This type of player is known as an "enforcer" and his incentive is to protect the team. If he does not, a new line of work might be in that person's future. All three of those theories relate closely to...