Players fight because we let 'em

ByJEFF MACGREGOR
December 4, 2013, 1:12 PM

— -- The only thing more predictable than fighting in NHL hockey is the fight over fighting in NHL hockey.

Right now in Canada, the game's ancient birthplace, and everywhere the game is played and talked about, we are engaged in another great debate over the role of fighting in hockey. Like the orbit of a dark and distant planet, these arguments come and go like clockwork, but shed little light. For many years, once a decade or so, the moral, ethical, practical and existential questions of why fighting is allowed to continue in professional hockey were politely raised and shelved in a useless cycle. Plenty of anger on every side. But no answer. And no catharsis. Nothing changed. That these painful self-examinations of Canada's national pastime are now annual may itself be evidence that the fight for fighting is a losing cause. Still, the debate goes on.

There are lots of arguments for fighting in the game: It holds players accountable for their actions; protects star players; gives teams a momentary boost of momentum and purpose; attracts and excites fans and keeps the core audience happy; prevents more serious violence, thereby lessening the risk of serious injury.

The case against has always been the same: Fighting is a useless, vicious anachronism providing no benefit to anyone.

The instigator in the most recent public argument is Bobby Orr. The publication of his new book, "Orr: My Story," and its excerpts in the Globe and Mail, make clear that fighting is still a natural and necessary part of modern hockey.

$3.5 billion-a-year specialty business suffering serial failures of labor and management, and in which as many as half the teams lose money.

It's impossible to prove the negative, but it's worth asking whether the growth and health of the game have been limited by its addiction to violence and the rough justice of the goons and enforcers. How many kids were never allowed to play? How many tickets were never sold? How many television deals never made? How many hundreds of millions of dollars lost? We'll never be sure. The true cost of fighting in hockey -- and to hockey -- is incalculable.

Is there a single honest argument left on its behalf? Is there any evidence anywhere to suggest that fighting brings in a single 21st century fan or a single 21st century dollar? Does it curb more dire acts of violence on the ice? Or are those just the lies we tell ourselves? Lots of sports prize physicality and sacrifice and high-speed contact -- and duty, honor, loyalty -- but the fighting culture of NHL hockey remains unique. As happens so often in sports, hockey is an institution made great and then imprisoned by its own traditions.

And this tradition is a chapter out of Orwell: Only by fighting can we keep the peace.