Violence in sports

It is ironic that I write about violence during the Christmas season, a time for peacemaking and spreading cheer. But the main impetus for going against the tide, so to speak, is the brawl that erupted on Dec. 16, 2006 at the Madison Square Garden in New York in a National Basketball Association (NBA) game between the Denver Nuggets and the New York Knicks.

At the end of the incident, the Knicks and Nuggets organizations were fined $500,000 (close to P25 million) each. In addition, the following, among others, were meted suspensions: Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony, 15 games; Knicks guard Nate Robinson and Nuggets guard J.R. Smith, 10 games each; and Knicks guard Mandy Collins, six games.

In issuing the penalties, NBA Commissioner David Stern said, "It is our obligation to take the strongest possible steps to avoid such failures...and will take the occasion to set forth some of the considerations that have influenced my decision."

"...teams will be held accountable for the actions of their employees - management and players alike; players must take advantage of a break or pause in a heated situation to stop and restore order, instead of escalating the situation; and players must heed directions from referees and others who are trying to maintain order and not continue to put fans, referees and peacemakers in harm’s way."

Certainly this is not the first time that a brawl has broken out in an NBA game. There have been quite a number of such violent incidents in the 59-year history of the league. One recent instance was the Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers fracas late last year during the 2005-06 season that involved the Pacers Jermaine O’Neal and Ron Artest and the Pistons Ben Wallace. The fight spilled into the stands with Artest slugging a fan who threw beer at him earlier. The fan sued Artest.

Violence in sports has always been around and involves not just the players themselves but the fans and, in the case of children’s sports, parents. According to Wikipedia, fan violence goes back to Roman times when supporters of chariot racing teams were frequently involved in major riots. A notable example of this is the Nika riots of 532 when supporters of the Blue and Green teams (shades of Ateneo vs De La Salle) slugged it out in barbaric rage resulting in 30,000 deaths over a week.

Perhaps the biggest and most regrettable incident of fan violence in modern times occurred in Heysel Stadium in Belgium in 1985 in a football game between the Italian team Juventus and Britain’s Liverpool F.C. Thirty nine died when a wall collapsed under pressure from Juventus supporters fleeing from football hooligans supporting Liverpool F.C.

The organization of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States directly draws its origins from the violence spawned by college football games in the early 20th century. In the book "Universities in the Marketplace," former Harvard president Derek Bok says "the (American) football in the early years of the twentieth century was even more violent than it is today."

New tactics resulted in 21 deaths in 1904 alone. One year later, President Theodore Roosevelt called a meeting of college presidents to consider ways of stopping the mayhem. Out of such concerns was the NCAA born in 1906 to develop uniform rules for college sports.

The Philippine NCAA was born within a few decades from the birth of its US counterpart. The local NCAA itself has not been immune from violence. The Ateneo-San Beda basketball championship in the 70’s had to be held behind closed doors at the Araneta Coliseum for fears of violence among spectators. Ateneo and Mapua Institute of Technology figured in a free-for-all that interrupted their basketball championship game at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum in 1962.

The riot led NCAA authorities to call off competitions in all sports for two years. The league resurrected itself in 1965 but by the late ‘70’s-early ‘80’s, other violent incidents plagued the NCAA including the fights between De La Salle and Letran supporters in a basketball game at Rizal Memorial. The incident triggered La Salle’s withdrawal from the NCAA and its eventually joining the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP).

The UAAP too was not immune from such violence. One recalls the free-for-all in the early ’60s that featured, among others, Robert Jaworski of University of the East and Danny Florencio of University of Sto. Tomas.

The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) has had its share of violence. The Crispa-Toyota rivalry was spiced-up by brawls and fisticuffs. Even when some of its teams go abroad, the PBA is sucked into some kind of trouble as in the case of Enrico Villanueva who was detained in a Brunei jail after engaging Koreans in some hard non-basketball action in the hard court.

Even off the playing area, sports officials engage in verbal tussles that threaten to get physical.

Go Teng Kok, special assistant to Jose Cojuangco Jr., president of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), claims that the heated argument he had with Bacolod City Congressman Monico Puentevella, Salvador Andrada of tennis, and Vic Valbuena of table tennis was precipitated by Puentevella’s asking for "my (Go’s) head from POC president Cojuangco." Go says that Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Butch Ramirez and PSC Commissioner Ritchie Garcia joined Puentevella in asking Cojuangco to sack him.

Violence in sports will always be an issue. It will never be resolved for the simple reason that humans are inherently competitive and when people compete, they do their best and become emotionally involved.

Violence can, however, be minimized if penalties are heavy and athletes feel that violent behavior does not pay. Emphasis should also be given to the idea that opponents are partners (rather than enemies) in sports in that a game well played gives validity to the rules of the contest and even the sacrifices, hardships one endured to get into the game.

If violence in sports continues unabated, George Orwell may have been right when he made the observation that "serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting."

A Merry Christmas to all!