SPORTS

Safe Violence!
By: Nicholas H., St. Paul's Junior High, Mount Pearl, NF

Remember stories about horrific Gladiator battles where the bad guys put slaves into death-ensuring activities? Tigers, alligator, lions and venomous snakes were used to mutilate people in the coliseum. As well as dangerous animals there were many deaths by human vs. human battle. People were injured or died in these events. The gladiators are dead and gone, but now we have created a sport in which opponents enter into combat in an arena.

Sound familiar?????

Hockey is known as a great sport. But what is so great about a bunch of men racing on ice after a rubber disc. Pretty stupid, yes. But some of these guys, despite having an I.Q of two, are turning into gladiators. Hockey is widely known for its toughness. Coaches are telling their players to go after star players in opposition. Players are actually on the roster just to hurt the other team.

People have a thirst for blood and this sport has taken the place of Gladiator battles. Many fans are bloodthirsty and crave violence. Whenever someone is checked the crowds scream for more. Whenever there is a fight the audience goes crazy and become ruthless. It seems that they enjoy the pain of others. If there were a team in the league that decided that it wanted to be safe and not check and fight, not one fan would show up. It's violent and people want it that way!

In Roman times, Gladiators wore protective gear to cover their vulnerable spots. Nowadays hockey players wear protective gear that covers all the body to protect them.

What is really strange is that in Roman times they didn't enforce much safety and many died. Today, hockey players have a lot of protection to help them stay healthy but the crowd wants the intensity of roman times. They want the body checks and slams. Yet whenever someone gets hurt they all are quiet and care for the safety of the player. They want what some have called 'safe violence'; the contact but not the heavy hitting and deliberate acts as we have seen in the past year or so.

I enjoy hockey and I think it's a fun sport but sometimes it can get a bit ridiculous.