Sports

So one of my friends sent me an IM tonight on Facebook, asking me about the whole situation with the latest Matt Cooke (of the Pittsburgh Penguins) suspension. I'm not gonna lie, I saw the hit, it was dirty. I like the Penguins, but I agree that the hit he put out was dirty. And now he's suspended for the rest of the regular season, and the first round of playoffs.

I told my friend that it was a really stupid move of him. The team is already down so many players, and now they lose one more. Then he made some comment about how this is probably driving Sidney Crosby nuts. I agreed, I mean, he's the captain of the team, he hasn't been able to play due to his injury, and his team is having a lot of ups and downs lately. I said I felt bad for him. Which led him to make some comment about how he thought it was funny and started to make fun of him.

Ok. I won't lie. I have poked fun at Crosby before. But I never doubted his abilities to play, he is an AMAZING athlete. And seeing him take those hits, hearing and reading all about how he's struggling to recover from this injury, I've really just gained a lot more respect for him. I seriously feel really bad. When I heard that he was starting to skate again, I honestly was really happy to hear that. I hope that he can make a full recovery soon and come back and play.

Then came the whole debate. My friend started talking about how he was a "pussy" and that football players take hits even harder than hockey players. Since when is who takes a harder hit a debate? Any kind of hit by any kind of sports player is going to hurt, whether it's football or hockey.

He said something along the lines of, "These are violent sports. We watch them because of the violence, we watch them to see people take big hits, get bloody, and occasionally see a devastating injury."

Um.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that those are NOT the reasons I watch sports. I watch hockey for the skills, the athleticism, for the SPORT. And honestly, I don't think I'm alone in this. Personally, I think if someone watches sports hoping for injuries and looking forward just to things like that, it's downright sick and twisted.

I remember watching the Blackhawks game in February when Fernando Pisani got knocked into the Dallas bench. My stomach dropped. I literally sat there, with my head in my hands, almost in tears. I remember sitting there saying, "Please get up, please get up, please get up." I was absolutely horrified. I remember going on Twitter the night that Zdeno Chara knocked out Max Pacioretty. I looked up the video, and it was the same feeling all over again. I couldn't believe it, it was like it was too awful for words.

I honestly just fail to see why THIS is what would appeal to people to watch sports. There's a big difference between two players getting into a fight, and someone's life being in real and actual danger.

My friend said that we watch things to see people fail, to see people fuck up.

That's not why I watch hockey. I watch it to see these guys living their dream, doing the thing they love, succeeding in something that they have worked hard their whole life for, and finally having their work pay off. I watch it to see them succeed. I watch it for the love of the game.