Violence in Sports

Violence is defined as the use of excessive physical force, which causes or has obvious potential to cause harm or destruction to an individual. Violence in sports comes in many forms, and divides into social and cultural factors related to the sport ethic, gender ideology, the dynamics of social class and race, and the tactics used in sports. Violence in sports has gone too far because sports violence has become so severe in sports, that players are injured each years. However, in sports some violence has become entertaining for the fans and fans would begin their own violence around with other fans that support opposing teams to win. The violence in sports can cause severe casualties from collisions to concussions that may result in long-term mental or physical damage.

There are many casualties of violence and collisions/concussions in professional sports. The first common type of violence is body contact. The brutal body contact includes physical practices common in certain sports and accepted by athletes as part of sport participation. Examples of brutal body contacts in sports are collisions, hits, tackles, blocks, body checks, and other forms of physical contact that can produce injuries. In the NHL a hockey player on the Vancouver Canucks named Todd Bertuzzi hit unexpectedly a player on the Colorado Avalanche named Steve Moore from behind and then fell on him and pushed his head into the ice. Steve Moore received a concussion and he was motionless for ten minutes, and also fractured three vertebrates and facial cuts on Steve Moore’s face. The commissioner suspended Todd Bertuzzi

for giving a blind-side hit to Steve Moore. He was suspended for 20 games and forfeited his salary which was approximately $500,000. Steve’s injury was a career-ending injury which ruined his opportunity to play in the NHL with the Colorado Avalanche.

Another type violence in sports which is the quasi-criminal violence this includes practices that violate the formal rules of the game, public laws, and even informal norm between players. Examples of quasi-criminal violence are cheap shots, blind-side hit, and flagrant fouls that endanger player body and reject the norm calling for dedication to the game above all else. In the NFL, a linebacker in Pittsburgh Steelers named Jerome Harrison; he made a tackle that is a great example of brutal body contact. His tackling towards other football players sometimes involves cheap hits like the head to head contact. The football players could be injured on the field and the result could lead to a concussion.