Violence In Sports
Violence in sports has been a big issue through the years and it will never be truly resolved. Competition always brings out the "fire" inside of players and coaches which sometimes leads to unnecessary violence. Fans will always be rowdy, players will have short tempers and misfortunate problems will always occur.
The violence isn't always among the players of the sports being played. During an exhibition basketball game in China, with only 9 minutes 32 seconds left in the game and the scored tied at 64, Georgetown and Bayi Military Rockets got in a massive brawl involving all the players, some fans, and coaches. By the looks of the video this happened because of a loose ball with a Chinese player and Georgetown player retaliating over a little bit of physical play. As it escaladed there were punches thrown, water bottles thrown and even chairs thrown. The Georgetown Hoyas coach John Thompson III pulled his players off the court and had to ask for a police escort back to the hotel because the fans were so aggressive. This trip for Georgetown was a goodwill trip that just turned bad for this game.
Some sports have many rules that punish players with fines and suspensions like in basketball you can get a fine of around $35 000 for just escalading a fight, $25 000 for hitting a player in the groin and many other suspensions for fighting or even criticizing the refs.
In professional sports it isn't the athletes most of the time that starts the violence. Sometimes the fans are the ones to cause the riots and fights. Especially in the sport of basketball, the fans are very passionate and take the sport just as serious as the athletes do. Although, some fans when they see violence they try to help the situation, for example.. "A woman sitting in the Georgetown fan section directly behind the bench implored Chinese police to try to calm the situation, yelling about the risk of injuries to bystanders."
Most athletes are all about winning; winning brings success, something that athletes strive for. Depending on the person's morals and values, the athlete may choose to do violent things because they want to win so badly. Of course violence is bad, but athletes choose to do it anyways because it may give them the "upper hand".
On November 19th, 2004 an altercation between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons at The Palace in Auburn Hills, led to a massive brawl which ended in fans injured and big suspensions for players. With less than a minute left in the game Ron Artest (Pacers) fouled Ben Wallace (Pistons) intentionally which made Wallace react in a violent way, resulting in a team brawl. After the coaches and some players helped separate the fight, Artest got a drink thrown at him and he jumped