Violence exists in nowadays sport. In the past aggression was considered by the demand of playing to win, but over the last years violence in sports has become a social problem. There are numerous examples of violence among athletes and fans of hockey, soccer, football, baseball, boxing, and basketball games. The paper seeks to classify and discuss the sources of violence.
Sports violence can be defined as behavior which causes harm, happens outside of the rules of the sport, and is unconnected with the competitive objectives of the sport (Terry and Jackson 27). There are two forms of aggression in sports: instrumental and reactive. Violence is the outcome of reactive aggression that has a fundamental emotional component, with harm as its goal.
The most common sources of violence in sports are the players, nature of the game and realization of rules by officials and governing bodies, and fans and society (Terry and Jackson 30).
In professional hockey, football or boxing players are expected to be seriously hurt. The athletic violence in American football underwent legal discussion. There are examples when football players died on the field. It was a shock when on February 2, 2000 Marty McSorley hit on Donald Brashear’s head with his hockey stick in the confines of GM Place in Vancouver. The people would never have thought that an athlete from an elite league could lose his temper in a violent outburst of anger.
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Some sports are so violent that sports leagues have introduced rules that punish players with fines and suspensions. For example, a diversity of penalties and even a penalty box for lawbreakers are accepted in hockey. Bench-clearing brawls may be ignored in baseball.Football and soccer have received a reputation as the most violent games, therefore, penalties are applied for unnecessary roughness, roughing the passer and the kicker, tripping, spearing, and holding.
The nature of wrestling is also violent and sadistic. It is clear for everyone who has ever seen the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) on TV. The attention of the fans who fill the stadiums and order the pay-per-views is the best way to advertise the show.
The harsh violence of the fans is one of the greatest cruelties in society over the last 20 years, and athletes’ violence only serves to encourage it.
In fact, the most violent fans in the world are those at soccer matches. During such matches, many people are killed or injured when fans revolt against the fact that their team has lost a game. For instance, 39 people had been killed and nearly 400 hurt in Brussels, even before a game between Liverpool and Turin began (Wann, Culver, Rubaba, Daglar, & Smith 283).
In 2010, a match between Serbia and Italy was blocked and postponed for about an hour as fans’ behavior was out of control. People throw flares onto the field and that caused a fire. In another case, two men were shot in a quarrel about a forthcoming World Cup game in Dallas (Wann, Culver, Rubaba, Daglar, & Smith 289).
Violence in sports has become a worldwide phenomenon, because there is no personal responsibility for it. Coaches and managers have a tendency to charge fans saying that violence attracts people to stadiums, as the risk involved makes the game attractive for them. Players frequently admit that they protest against violence, but being aggressive is what their coaches expect. Fans explain it by specific aspects of the game.and athletes treating each other in an aggressive manner. Spectators perceive violence as an integral part of some kinds of sport as one cannot play games like football or hockey without violent actions.
A lot depends on the natural human desire to win, and the main goal of the sport is to fight and to win. The success of sports commercialization suggests using striking examples of violence, butwhat we all forget is the fact that it is just a game, not real life. We all can restrain our negative emotions and stresses and not bring them to the court.