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Why do human beings allow violence in sports?
November 7, 2009
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There are many cases in sports where accidents cause unintentional injury. Two good examples:
1) What happens when you get hit in the head by a 95 MPH fastball?
2) The Felipe Massa crash at the Hungarian Grand Prix
We try to prevent these accidents as best we can. Batters wear helmets. Cars are improved with new safety devices, and so on.
But then there are the injuries caused by violence, where players ruthlessly and willfully attact others with the intent to cause injury. One example from a couple of months ago comes to mind:
A huge hockey hit leads to a concussion
And then there is this story/video, where a female soccer player named Elizabeth Lambert is clearly out of control and savaging other players on the field:
VIDEO: Watch Elizabeth Lambert, The Dirtiest Player In Women’s Soccer
I do not know the answer to this question: Why do human beings allow this kind of violence? Nothing is gained from it. Truly talented athletes are rare, and allowing them to be injured by rogue players takes them out of the game, and therefore diminishes the game for everyone. Why aren’t violent players immediately and permanently suspended from the sport? In the case of Elizabeth Lambert, why hasn’t she been arrested and put in jail?
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4 Responses to “Why do human beings allow violence in sports?”
Afterthought says: It allows testosterone-drenched males to beat on each other in an organized, peaceful way.
It allows crowds of people to reenact the tribal wars of the ancients and dress up as “lions” “bears” “bulls” etc. without killing each other or overthrowing the government.
As Freud said, sublimation of the libido is the basis of civilization.
I’ve watched that video of Lambert several times over the last couple of days. The reason she wasn’t arrested is because the assault (and that’s the only word for it) happened in the context of a sporting event. In a game, she’s protected by rules and regs, the same as other players — and if the refs don’t see the dirty behavior then they can’t card her or eject her for it — the video is unclear just which events the refs saw. I’m curious to know if Lambert — and players like her — are as aggressive off the field; I’m betting not, because the consequences are much higher when the other party is likely to respond with an equal or greater act of self-defense. Honestly, that pony tail yank could have broken that girl’s neck; humans are bendy, but not THAT bendy. In football, facemasking – a similar offense – is one of the worst penalties you can make, along with hitting someone when they’ve called fair catch. If nothing else, the other players should take solace that Lambert’s behavior is now infamous and forever immortalized.
Another news article noted Lambert had been “indefinitely suspended” from her team due to her behavior in the BYU game. Not quite arrested, but at least other soccer players are safe from her for the season…
Why do human beings allow violence in sports? The answer is in the question.
In “Blood Meridian,” Cormac McCarthy ran with the notion that all games, all sports aspire to the conditions of war — and that war itself is nothing short of humanity’s destiny. It’s easy to draw the parallels: Two armies march onto the field, two teams take to the turf. They engage, compete and labor to win a victory over their opponent. Sports is a more civil substitute for violent bloodshed between tribes. As such, it should come as no surprise that we can’t refine all of the raw material out of the modern product.
EDIT: Not to say Cormac invented this idea by any means, but when he says it, it tends to stick with one.
~rl