Thursday's Presentation

I really enjoyed Thursday’s PowerPoint presentation on violence in sports. In my opinion, any professional athlete who initiates a fight with a fan, coach, teammate, or opponent should be suspended for the rest of the season at the least and in some cases fired from ever playing in the league again. Ron Artest, for example, should never be able to play in an NBA game again. Last year, NHL star Todd Bertuzzi sucker punched Colorado’s Steve Moore in the back of the head. When Moore was down, Bertuzzi continued to slam his head into the ice until he was pulled off. Moore had to be rushed to the hospital with a broken neck, a concussion, and other injuries. Moore may never return to hockey, but Bertuzzi is expected to return next season. In the real world, if any employee at a regular job was to ever do what some of these athletes do, they would be fired in a heartbeat. Athletes whine about not getting paid enough, but yet they go out and act the way they do during games. College athletes should also be punished more severely for their actions than they are. Fans don’t pay money to come see the players on the field bash each others heads in. If that’s what they wanted to see, they should go to a boxing match. Even in boxing, there are athletes like Mike Tyson who bites a person’s ear off, but returns to boxing a year later.
People like to blame television and video games on the violence in schools. They need to look at the violence in sports that are repeatedly flashed all over television, magazines and newspapers. A lot of children look up to athletes and consider them to be their heroes. What are they expected to think when these heroes go out and inflict bodily harm on someone else.