Fighting In Sports

Fighting in sports.

Players are fighting at an all time high right now, but why is this?

In the NHL, and hockey in general, fights happen often and the crowd usually cheers while players try to rip each others heads off while trying to stay stable while skating on the ice.

Check out this epic fight between the Flyers' Brashear and the Senators' Ray.

Most of the fights in hockey are warranted in my opinion. The players play through tremendous injuries and "police" themselves with these fights, although most of the time the refs step in to stop the madness.

In hockey, the fighting is here to stay. Check out this article from The Hockey News back in November of 2013. The players seem to be in favor of it, so why shouldn't you?

In other sports such as baseball, basketball or football fighting is frowned upon, and the players are usually given suspensions and fines for their participation in those altercations. But fights still manage to break out.

In basketball tempers often flare when the other team is showboating or commits a hard foul, but no fight tops the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons' rumble on Nov. 19, 2004. The "Malice in the Palace" as it has come to known, all started when the Pistons' Ben Wallace shoved the Pacers' Ron Artest, now known as Metta World Peace. The fight turned on the crowd shortly after when Artest was the subject of a projectile alcoholic beverage from the stands. Artest went into the stands and found the fan that threw the beer, and started fighting him. But it didn't stop there as the Pacers' Stephen Jackson and Jermaine O'Neal went into the stands to retrieve Artest, but were mauled by fans and caused more ruckus of their own.

In all 146 games worth of suspension were thrown down and $11,548,832 worth of fines. The majority going to Artest, whom was suspended for the remainder of the regular season, 73 games, and 13 playoff games for a total of 86 games, and $4,995,000.

In the NBA no fight has come close to being as big as the one in Detroit was, but last week in a Playoff series between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics, in a deciding Game 4 on April 26, tempers flared when Celtics' forward Kelly Olynyk tugged on Cavaliers' forward Kevin Love's arm, and eventually dislocated his shoulder. The Cavaliers' J.R. Smith and Kendrick Perkins retaliated, going after the Celtics' Jae Crowder. The aftermath of the pseudo-fight was Smith getting handed a two game suspension and taking a $116,359 fine while Perkins would just face a fine of $15,000. Love is expected to miss the entire second round of the playoffs with the injury.

With three more rounds of the NBA Playoffs to go, I expect there to be a few more skirmishes, but hopefully nothing to level of what happened in the first round between the Cavaliers and Celtics.

The most recent fight in football came on the biggest stage, during the Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. The Patriots' Rob Gronkowski and Michael Hoomanawanui and the Seahawks' Bruce Irvin and Michael Bennett were fined for the involvement in a brawl during the final moments of the Super Bowl. The four players were fined a total of $34,804. While the fine amount is a small cry to what the salaries are of the players, it was still a sign that fighting is not tolerated.

With the NFL Draft coming this Thursday, hopefully no draftees take it upon themselves to get introduced to the leagues suspensions or fines before they officially suit up.

In the MLB fights are few and far between, with one of the best in my opinion coming on Aug. 4 1993 between then Texas Ranger Nolan Ryan and the Chicago White Sox' Robin Ventura.

But that fight between Ryan and Ventura was glorified over the years and now players are beginning to act out again, and the Kansas City Royals are at the lead of the conversation.

Just 20 games into the 2015 season the Royals have been in the middle of four bench clearing incidents.

The first came on April 17, in what was the first meeting between the Royals and the Oakland Athletics since the Sept. 30, 2014 American League Wild Card game. The benches cleared in the top of the 7th inning as Brett Lawrie took out Royals' shortstop Alcides Escobar with a slide into second base.

The second incident came on April 18 against the Athletics when Yordano Ventura threw at Lawrie, in what seems to be retaliation for a "hard slide" Lawrie made the night before that injured Royals' shortstop Escobar.

But the fun for the Royals didn't stop there against the Athletics.

Just one day later, on April 19, the Royals and A's got into another skirmish. It wasn't when Scott Kazmir hit Lorenzo Cain in the ankle with a pitch, but that sure increased the tempers for later in the game. This time it was Kelvin Herrera on the mound for the Royals, throwing at none other than the Athletics' Lawrie. He hit him with an inside pitch close to 100 MPH and the benches cleared again.

For his intentional hitting of Lawrie, Herrera was given a five game suspension and fined just over $43,000.

But three benches clearing incidents in three days wouldn't be enough for the Royals.

Just a few days after the series finale with the Athletics, on April 23, the Kansas City Royals and the Chicago White Sox got into a scrum.

This time the suspensions and fines from the MLB came down with force. The aftermath included six players being suspended, four Royals, Cain, Herrera, Ventura, Edison Volquez, and two Chicago White Sox players, including former Athletics' pitcher Jeff Samardzija, and Chris Sale. The suspensions totaled 31 games, and the fines totaled $712,766.

In the week since the fines and suspensions were handed out no fights have occurred on any diamond in the MLB, hopefully that is a trend that will continue throughout the season.

But hope is not enough to derail the fighting in sports. We need action, and we need it now. The action needs to come down harsh, and even throughout all sports. We can't have players being fined small percentages of their salaries for fighting when an injury in a fight could cost a player his career. The fines and suspension need to match the crime.

In my opinion the fighting punishments should be similar to that of the controlled substance policies in the MLB and NFL. First time you get fined roughly one-third of the season and one-third years salary, second time closer to two-thirds the season and salary, and the third time a full season or longer with match salary deduction.

If the players still want to fight after being suspended a full season, take up boxing or mixed martial arts, there is money in that too.

But that's just my opinion. I would love to hear yours, so please chime in below with your stance on the punishments handed down for fighting. Until next time, this has been Last Resort Sports.