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A Warning About Fighting
by Alanah McGinley on 12/15/08 at 04:39 PM ET
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From Ken Campbell of The Hockey News,
It was a hockey fight that started the way thousands of others have over the years, but it ended with a 21-year-old fighting for his life in a Hamilton hospital.
The fact the fight took place in the backwaters of senior hockey in Ontario will undoubtedly prompt some to dismiss it as a one-time accident, largely because that’s what it was. But it has long been the opinion of this corner that it is only a matter of time before an NHL player dies as the result of a hockey fight and only then, maybe, will the game do something about fighting.
Because of a hockey fight, the parents of Don Sanderson of the Whitby Dunlops are sitting by their son’s bed in a Hamilton hospital wondering when, or if, their son is ever going to wake up. After one surgery and some 60 hours after his fight with Corey Fulton of the Brantford Blast last Friday night, Sanderson was still in a coma.
Update 4:42pm ET: More on this from Jamie Fitzpatrick at About.com as well.
Update 5:57pm ET: Bob McKenzie at TSN weighs in --
I’m afraid, for me anyway, that parenthood trumps journalism at a time like this.
Which is to suggest, I am also sick over how this tragedy has become a jumping-off point today to either rally around the game and how it’s played or to use it as an example of all that is wrong with hockey.
I don’t want hear the pro-fighting boosters tell me it’s part of the game, that it’s a tough sport and that accidents happen. I know that, but it makes it no less sickening.
And I don’t want to hear the anti-fighting cause wag a finger and say it was bound to happen sooner or later, because that reeks of opportunism in the face of great tragedy.
The truth is, depending upon your view, you can make this sad story whatever you want it to be.
Filed in: Non-NHL Hockey, Minor League | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: hockey+fights,
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Hockey Links
Hey, skates cause a lot of injuries too… shall we ban those next?
The moral of the story is thuggery and stupid, irresponsible behavior will always find an outlet in sports. Whether it’s McSorely bashing his stick on someone’s head or Lemieux running a defenseless player into the boards head-first or Bertuzzi punching someone in the head from behind…
... you can never fully insulate yourself from idiots, and if you try too hard you end up with a sissified sport even diehard fans get annoyed with.
Posted by HockeyinHD on 12/15/08 at 05:30 PM ET