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The Way I See It
MARTY McSorley's braining of Donald Brashear last week has resurrected consciousness about sports violence. Violence becomes
issue againAs Vancouver authorities ponder whether to charge the Boston Bruins' goon with assault, the incident gives new life to the issue of whether or not police intervention is required when one athlete deliberately tries to seriously injure another.
Where do you draw the line on violence in games?
Referees have tried to get legislation passed in Hawaii that would make it a crime to attack a game official during a contest. That bill had a snowball's chance in Kilauea's oozing lava when local police said no thanks.
There were plenty of incidents locally in rec league, youth league and prep play to bolster the need for a law to protect the zebras, but the bill has died in committee more than once.
But there is ample precedent for law enforcement entering the sports realm.
Ask Tony Limon, a basketball player for San Antonio High School who was sentenced to five years in jail for breaking an opponent's face with his elbow on Jan. 15.
THE Vancouver police are considering charges against McSorley, and there's precedent in the NHL for such action.
Minnesota North Stars forward Dino Ciccarelli was convicted of assault in Ontario Provincial Court in 1988 for slashing Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Luke Richardson on the head three times. He was fined $1,000 and jailed for one day.
There were also NHL assault cases in 1970, 1975 and 1976, none of which resulted in memorable outcomes.
The league certainly isn't thrilled with the idea that its players could be handcuffed for overzealously pursuing a tactic that keeps the league on TV - fighting.
Believe me, the NHL couldn't do without fights, otherwise its TV ratings would dip even lower than they've been. Unlike the NFL, the NHL doesn't sit atop the sports world.
ESPN commentator and former player Barry Melrose admitted a few days before the McSorley incident, "Fighting is a tool in hockey."
McSorley said that his original intention in swinging at Brashear, was simply to goad him into a fight.
But how could starting a brawl with 2.7 seconds left on the clock and your team trailing, 5-2, be used as a "tool"?
The league wants to keep the police out of the arena and handle its own problems.
BUT in a story by Terry Bell this week in The Province, a Vancouver daily, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Wally Oppal said, "A crime is a crime and no organization has immunity from prosecution."
That still leaves the question, where do you draw the line? What is a crime in sports?
Should Jack Tatum, who reveled in the nickname, "Assassin," have been charged for crippling Darryl Stingley?
Should Kermit Washington have been cuffed for shattering Rudy Tomjanovich's jaw?
I had to chuckle when I read in the same Vancouver story what the late blood 'n' guts Buffalo Sabers GM Punch Imlach said as a witness at the 1976 assault trial of Dan Maloney:
"You want to call that violence? We call it action."
Pat Bigold has covered sports for daily newspapers
in Hawaii and Massachusetts since 1978.