Sunday Afternoon's Alright For Fighting

TSN and CTV news had an interesting report this week on the decline of fighting in hockey. Statistically, there has been a steady decline in the amount of fighting, particularly over the last ten years. Since the 2005 strike, the game has been changed by the crackdown on obstruction and the salary cap. Those two factors have conspired to reduce fighting: higher speeds and tight budgets have meant that teams can't spare a roster spot for someone who can't contribute with skill.

I always thought that was the biggest argument against fighting in hockey; even if you accept the belief that fights are a good way to rally the team, you're essentially talking about having a mascot who is actually a team member. Give the Phillie Phanatic a spot on the bench and a multi-million dollar contract and suddenly he doesn't seem so fun.

But what was also interesting in the report was how fighting increased in the first place. Back in the Original Six days, fighting was much less common, with about a fight every four games. In the expansion era, it skyrocketed, peaking in the 80's at more than one fight a game. Although there are fewer fights now, we're still above what it was in the sixties.

Of course, this goes against the Cherryist orthodoxy, which states that: (1) you can't have hockey without fighting, and (2) the Original Six was a golden era when everything was perfect, until it was contaminated by the Swedes and Gary Bettman.

So it's amusing that fighting may cure itself. But if you really want to see a sport where fighting is tolerated, have no fear, NASCAR is here. Fighting isn't new there; many say the sport was launched into the public consciousness with the Allison-Yarborough tilt at the end of the 1979 Daytona 500.

But in recent years there have been plenty of fights following races. And NASCAR has seems to be okay with it, doling out surprisingly little punishment, while also relaxing punishment for the misbehaviour on the track that leads to post-race fights. Indeed, Jalopnik.com notes that in the most recent fight, no one was fined, but several mechanics paid the price for - wait for it - illegal lug nuts.

It can't be a coincidence that NASCAR has become more tolerant of fights during the time that their attendance is down, and their TV ratings are in free-fall. You can understand their thinking, since one of the many explanations for the sport's decline in popularity is that it's hard to care about this generation of drivers. You'll learn something about them after seeing them in post-race confrontations, even if it's just fighting style.

But I have always had my doubts about fighting as a way to popularity for a sport. The problem is that there's a difference between what people enjoy, and what they choose. Yes, the audience usually enjoys themselves during a hockey fight, but that doesn't necessarily translate into a large part of the public wanting to watch the sport. People are in a different frame of mind when they’re choosing how to spend their time an money, and a sport that gets a reputation as an uncivilized guilty pleasure will lose out.