In the United States, people are in love in sports. They are used as an escape from everyday aspects of life such as economic and stock market problems, political problems here at home and also homeland security, which has been severely threatened over the years.
Baseball is known as “America’s Pastime”, but with the evolution of the game and how slow it has become, it does not receive a huge following from the casual fan, instead, just the diehards.
A sport like football, for example, is followed by a huge majority of the population in the States. People love it for it’s intense plays, high scoring, and also, the hits.
Think about it, almost half of the people that are watching a football game are just viewing it to see people hit each other. They want to see that bone-crushing, helmet popping hits that are going to really draw them into the game.
Recently, the NFL has been overrun with scandals, such as the Ray Rice, where he got caught red-handed for literally knocking out his wife in an elevator.
Concussions have also become a rising problem. Since 2000, the rate of concussion injuries has risen 168%. This number includes all positions.
Mainly, it’s the running backs that get concussions the most, because they are getting hit every time they have the ball as they try to gain yards for their team. Also, running backs also stop playing between 30-32, because of the amount of stress they put on their body.
Former players are attempting to sue the NFL over it’s misused concussion protocol. Why is their protocol so light? It’s simple, people want to see the hits, and the league knows that if those big hits keep coming, they will keep making money. That’s all what this is about, because after all, it is a business.
Now, transitioning into hockey. Going back decades, fighting on the ice played a huge role in a game. It could swing momentum, get your team going, but more importantly, it got the crowd into it.
Back then, a ton of people didn’t go for the actual game, they were going to see a fight, that was what the casual fan wanted to see, and they got it.
Luckily, unlike the NFL, hockey has strayed away from fighting, and they are even trying to eliminate it from the game completely. People actually buy their ticket to see the game now, not to see a fight break out.
Sports have also turned fans into savages. At the end of the 1984 baseball season, after the Detroit Tigers won the World Series, fans erupted into chaos outside the stadium. They were fighting back against police, burning cars, and just causing mayhem.
Immediately following the Vancouver Canucks game seven loss in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, Vancouver fans started riots in their own city by torching property, tipping over cars, and causing thousands of dollars of damage.
Is this what sports has become? Just going for big hits and fights, and also rioting when your team wins or loses? It’s sad to say, but unfortunately the sports world has been taken over by the thirst for wanting to see people get hurt, and that’s just wrong.
