Future Bookshelf Material: “Sport, Violence and Society” by Kevin Young

December 6, 2011 by Leave a comment

Future Bookshelf Material is an occasional feature that highlights new or upcoming publications on sport, and particularly hockey, that relate to Hockey in Society’s content and/or that may be of interest to its readers.

Well this is exciting, at least if you’re a nerd like me: a new book on sport and violence by sociologist Kevin Young. Dr. Young is a professor working in the University of Calgary’s Department of Sociology, and he has written extensively on issues relating to criminology, violence, and sport.

The summary of Sport, Violence and Society from Routledge’s website:

In this landmark study of violence in and around contemporary sport, Kevin Young offers the first comprehensive sociological analysis of an issue of central importance within sport studies. The book explores organized and spontaneous violence, both on the field and off, and calls for a much broader definition of ‘sports-related violence’, to include issues as diverse as criminal behaviour by players, abuse within sport and exploitatory labor practices.

Offering a sophisticated new theoretical framework for understanding violence in a sporting context, and including a wide range of case-studies and empirical data – from professional soccer in Europe to ice hockey in North America – the book establishes a benchmark for the study of violence within sport and wider society. Through close examination of often contradictory trends, from anti-violence initiatives in professional sports leagues to the role of the media in encouraging hyper-aggression, the book throws new light on our understanding of the socially-embedded character of sport and its fundamental ties to history, culture, politics, social class, gender and the law.

The Table of Contents offers some intriguing chapter titles, including “A History of Violence: Definitions, Theories, and Perspectives”; “Player Violence: The Drift to Criminalization”; and “Risk, Pain, and Injury in Sport: A Cause or Effect of Violence?”. Young has produced some very interesting scholarship over the years, so his new insights into sport violence should make for a fascinating and enlightening read.

One quibble: unless Young offers specific insight into the incident pictured on the cover – that is, Zenidine Zidane’s headbutt to Marco Materazzi during the 2006 World Cup Final – I don’t find it a particularly helpful cover image, as I think there are far more compelling and less sensational examples that better highlight the many sociological problems concerning sports violence. I suspect that the choice of cover was a decision made by the publisher rather than the author, and that Routledge may have picked an image designed to appeal to a larger market rather than to reflect the content of the book. But, lest I be accused of judging a cover by its book, I will have to wait until I read Sport, Violence and Society to pass judgement.

Overall, this looks like it should be a very insightful publication that seems particularly topical to hockey fans and scholars, given the current climate surrounding issues such as fighting, headshots, frontier justice, and concussions.

Filed under Books Tagged with , , , , , ,

Weekly Links: Canadian Forces Muzzle the Jets; Sidney Crosby Returns from Concussion; Frontier Justice Prevails in Buffalo

November 25, 2011 by Leave a comment

Image from: http://theglobeandmail.com

Welcome to Hockey in Society’s Weekly Links post. This feature highlights articles or blog entries that are related to Hockey in Society’s areas of interest and that may be of interest to the site’s readers.

Hockey Links

  • Well this is interesting: by settling on a military themed logo, the Winnipeg Jets signed a contract with the Department of National Defense stating that they cannot use the logo in a manner that reflects poorly upon the Canadian Forces or the Queen. While I can’t imagine a professional hockey team taking a strong anti-establishment political stance (although the Phoenix Suns provide a rare professional sport aberration in this regard) it is still interesting that the military can control the actions of a privately-owned team that is, in many ways, also seen as a public good. [Globe and Mail]
  • An interesting story, particularly in light of the interview we published yesterday: two women who formerly played youth hockey in Brampton win a Human Rights Tribunal case over their treatment as youth players. Both girls faced a range of discriminatory actions from teammates and coaches, and their mother was removed as a volunteer with the Brampton Youth Hockey Association after speaking out in defense of her daughters. [The Star]
  • Brendan Shanahan, the NHL’s rookie VP Player Safety, is pleased with players’ adaptation to his stricter enforcement of unsafe rule violations. Wait, is he saying that league enforcement is actually creating behaviour change? I thought the players sorted it out and self-policed and everything was great. No? [TSN]
  • To the surprise of exactly no-one who has an even cursory understanding of “the Code”, the first game between the Buffalo Sabres and Boston Bruins since Milan Lucic concussed Sabres’ goalie Ryan Miller featured fisticuffs galore. Harrison Mooney approves. [Puck Daddy]
  • David Shoalts reports on the Sabres/Bruins game, including some interesting tidbits and quotations about “honour” and “duty”, and the possibility that discipline is easing since NHL GMs criticized Brendan Shanahan. [Globe and Mail]
  • The Globe and Mail’s editor believes that Sidney Crosby’s return marks a turning point in awareness about concussions in hockey. I’ll believe it when I see it. [Globe and Mail]
  • Meanwhile, the two players who concussed Crosby will breathe a little easier now that he has returned. [The Star]
  • Bruce Dowbiggen with an interesting look at what Crosby means in terms of marketability for the NHL. [Globe and Mail]
  • The City of Markham, just northeast of Toronto, has plans to build a 19,500 seat arena not necessarily, but possibly, with a long-term eye to wooing an NHL team. It will be very interesting to watch this unfold for a variety of reasons, from local politics (are taxpayers expected to foot the bill?) to NHL politics (will the Maple Leafs enforce their monopoly on all professional hockey in the Greater Toronto Area?) to issues of (sub)urban economic and social development (or lack thereof). [TSN and The Hockey News]

General Sport Links

  • The Economist‘s sports blog explores – and debunks – the notion that anti-Christian sentiment is behind the widespread criticism of Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. [Game Theory]
  • This is a little old, but an interesting take on the media coverage of Tebow. Looking at how criticism of Tebow: the person misses critiquing the bigger picture of Tebow: the symbol of a messed-up corporate/politically influenced sports world. [E. Martin Nolan]
  • Also from The Economist sports blog, an interesting examination of labour issues in Australian Rules Football, whose popularity has mushroomed in the past few years. Unlike many North American sport leagues, in which athletes earn roughly 50% of revenue, AFL players earn just a quarter of revenue. [Game Theory]
  • The Conference Board of Canada has released a report examining the possibility of expansion in the Canadian Football League. The most likely municipal candidates: Ottawa, Quebec City, London, Moncton, Halifax, and Kitchener-Waterloo. [Conference Board of Canada]
  • Sepp Blatter, for all his faults, has agreed to remain in charge of FIFA for four more years. Really FIFA? [The Star]

Filed under Weekly Links Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Problems with Frontier Justice in Hockey: An Open Letter to The Hockey News

November 20, 2011 by 2 Comments

Image from: http://nytimes.com

This afternoon I sent a letter to the editor of The Hockey News in response to this article by Ryan Kennedy, in which he advocates for “frontier justice” in light of the recent Milan Lucic hit on Ryan Miller – a topic recently discussed by courtneyszto here on Hockey in Society. The full text of the letter is reproduced below:

Dear Editor,

I am writing in response to Ryan Kennedy’s article “Advocating for Frontier Justice”, posted on The Hockey News website on November 16. The letter left me dumbfounded, as it advocated for bully tactics that have proven time and time again to be extremely damaging to hockey players and to contribute to a broader culture of violence in the sport. I would like to think that Mr. Kennedy was writing satirically, but his passion for retaliatory violence seems genuine and last time I checked he is a writer for The Hockey News, not The Onion.

Mr. Kennedy essentially yearns for a return to the mythologized glory days where players policed themselves by an unwritten honour code, in which actions that transgressed “the Code” were punished by further retaliatory violence. This is a tired argument that Canadians, at least, have had verbally beaten into them through Don Cherry’s weekly trips to his Coach’s Corner bully pulpit. It is an argument that not only charts very dubious ethical ground, but one that also romanticizes the past at the expense of critically assessing the social and health impacts of self-policed hockey. Do we really want more Dino Ciccarelli stick attacks? Or Broad Street Bullies gang attacks that beat opponents into submission? Or, for a more contemporary example, more Todd Bertuzzi revenge hits? Because those actions are the logical extension of what Mr. Kennedy proposes.

Mr. Kennedy even happily admits that innocent victims – those who have done nothing to violate “the Code” but who happen to be on the same team as someone who has – should be targets for retaliation in this grand system of self-policed and “honourable” hockey. As Mr. Kennedy so eloquently and bloodthirstily puts it, “If . . . your goaltender just got steamrolled, but you can’t get at the perp, why not just beat the crap out of the guy nearest to you?” I cannot begin to tell you how pleasing it is to hear such humane and rational arguments coming from one of the most influential hockey publications in the world

I have a number of other issues with Mr. Kennedy’s suggestions, but I will focus here on just two. Firstly, Mr. Kennedy seems to glorify a world in which physical dominance equals success, in which the weak can and should be bullied, and in which manly men fight, literally, to climb to the top of this Darwinian heap. If such is the worldview of Mr. Kennedy, or The Hockey News, then that is a sad social vision indeed. While one can argue that “it’s just hockey” and therefore has no broader implications, such an argument ignores the complex ways in which sport and society interact and influence each other. It also forgets the exponentially higher number of hockey players who do not make the NHL compared with those who do – and leaves unanswered the questions about what happens to the kings of the minor or junior hockey jungles when their hockey careers are cut short. Are the lessons these young men are learning in such a physically brutal environment – that strength is superiority, that violence is an acceptable solution to problems, that stereotypically masculine codes of behaviour are clearly better than the alternatives offered by women or “unmanly” men – really the social attitudes with which our athletic youth should be entering adulthood?

Secondly, Mr. Kennedy seems entirely happy to have the NHL take a regulatory step back from the game and let the players police themselves. He states that “you may balk at frontier justice, but it’s still justice – and that’s always better than law.” Does that mean that law precludes justice? Can’t we have both? Rather than criticizing Buffalo Sabres players for not attacking Milan Lucic (or his linemates who had nothing to do with running Ryan Miller) because this would have been a form of “justice” in light of the NHL’s decision not to punish Lucic, why not criticize the league itself for being too toothless to enforce its own rules and to create safe conditions for its players to work in? Should we accept an NHL that is too cowardly to take violence seriously and that is happy to pass the buck for justice to the players? Or should we call for the league to take firmer action, to enforce the rules of the game, and to protect players’ health and livelihoods? To me, the latter option is the obvious choice. Otherwise, we may as well throw out the rulebook, tell the refs to stand back, and let the bloodbath begin.

In conclusion, I take very serious issue with Mr. Kennedy’s casual acceptance of violence in hockey and his suggestion that players enforce the rules of the game by the warped standards of “the Code”. I also feel that The Hockey News should make a strong effort to present alternative visions to the damaging views espoused by Mr. Kennedy, and to seriously consider the consequences that would arise from an implementation of his ideal for the sport. I know Mr. Kennedy is but one voice amongst many in the hockey media – but I sincerely hope, for the good of the players and fans of the sport, that his views are in the minority.

Sincerely,

Mark Norman

[Phone number omitted]

Filed under Blog posts Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

Weekly Links: Frontier Justice in the NHL; Saftey vs. Risk in Hockey

November 18, 2011 by Leave a comment

Image from: http://nesn.com

Welcome to Hockey in Society’s Weekly Links post. This feature highlights articles or blog entries that are related to Hockey in Society’s areas of interest and that may be of interest to the site’s readers.

Hockey Links

  • Ryan Kennedy a bizarre plea for more frontier justice in the NHL. Read on for gems such as “[if] you can’t get at the perp, why not just beat the crap out of the guy nearest to you?” and “athletes often use war as a metaphor to pump themselves up for competition, so why shouldn’t they go all Sun-Tzu once in a while?” I am at a loss for words. [The Hockey News]
  • Fortunately THN employs some voices of reason to counter the buffoonery of articles such as that by Kennedy. Adam Proteau reports on the NHL General Managers’ Meetings, at which Milan Lucic’s hit that concussed Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller was a topic of discussion. Proteau’s critique of the efforts by GMs to address player safety: a little less conversation, a little more action. [The Hockey News]
  • Sometimes I think The Onion may be the most insightful news source out there. Lampooning tough-on-crime policies, hockey culture, and the NHL’s inability to safely police itself all in one article? Fantastic. [The Onion Sports Network; h/t to Hockey in Society reader Matt for the link]
  • Are today’s NHL players meaner? Ex NHLer Edgar Laprade, who played for the New York Rangers between 1945-1955, thinks so. [Globe and Mail]
  • The Vancouver Police Department issues a massive WANTED poster of 104 suspects from the June 15 riots. While the justice system works through the process of identifying and charging individuals, the court of public opinion has already condemned many people through social media. [Puck Daddy]
  • The NHL adds former player Stephane Quintal to its Department of Player Safety. [Kukla's Corner]
  • A couple of discussions about risk in sport, in reaction to the tragic death of Alberta teenager Kyle Fundytus from a puck that struck his neck. The balance between risk and injury is something that this blog will discuss more in the future. [Globe and Mail and Puck Daddy]

General Sport Links

  • Sepp Blatter, the President of FIFA, shocked the sports world by announcing that racism does not exist in soccer and that it can be settled by a handshake: “There is no racism [on the field], but maybe there is a word or gesture that is not correct. . . . The one affected by this should say this is a game and shake hands. [BBC Sport]
  • Blatter rightly got slammed by prominent sportpeople for his shocking comments… [The Independent]
  • … forcing the embattled President to issue an apology. Blatter also brushed off calls for him to resign, which have come from many quarters. [ESPN]

Filed under Weekly Links Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

In Their Own Words: Sports Illustrated Talks to NHL Enforcers

November 12, 2011 by 1 Comment

Image from: http://www.webspawner.com/users/hockeydvds4sale/twist_rych2.jpg

The latest issue of Sports Illustrated has a fascinating and disturbing article by Austin Murphy about fighting and fighters in the NHL. The article is notable for its extensive interview excerpts, including statements from current or former enforcers George Parros, Tony Twist, Shawn Thornton, Todd Fedoruk, Lyndon Byers, Kelly Chase, and Jim McKenzie. I fully suggest reading the full article, as it includes not only lengthy excerpts from interviews but also some insightful commentary from Austin Murphy, but after the jump I present some very revealing excerpts from the interviews.

One of the mind-boggling things to me is that fighting is so widely accepted as a way to prevent star players from getting injured through cheap hits or illegal stick-work. What a brilliant system for the NHL, which has to take virtually no accountability for the safety of its players or, y’know, actually enforce its own rules of play. If the league were to combine a more severe punishment of fighting with a much, much stricter system of penalizing, suspending, and fining players for dangerous and illegal play – to actually create disincentives for players to engage in dangerous play – it’s hard to see how this would not create a significant and progressive culture shift in professional hockey.

Currently, as some of the interviews excerpts reveal, players have a strong incentive to fight because they are rewarded for it. Fighting becomes an acceptable means to achieve the dream of playing NHL hockey, regardless of the physical and mental toll it takes on both the individual player and countless others in the professional and minor hockey ranks – including the many scrappers whose NHL dreams are never realized. Furthermore, once socialized into the role of enforcer, some players clearly revel in the glory of the role, embrace the aggressive masculine image that is associated with the practice, and do whatever it takes to cling to this position.

After the jump, I present excerpts from the Sports Illustrated interviews because, I believe, they reveal a great deal about the motivations for becoming a fighter; the physical toll that this role entails; the self-policed norms of “the Code”; and the effects of a league that is too cowardly to enact or enforce rules to curb the damaging effects of on-ice violence. But enough of my own commentary, let’s hear it in fighters’ own words:

Read more of this post

Filed under Blog posts Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

Weekly Links: Patrick Burke’s Fight Against Homophobia; Georges Laraque and Dick Pound on PEDs in the NHL

November 11, 2011 by Leave a comment

Image from: http://georgeslaraque.net

Welcome to Hockey in Society’s Weekly Links post. This feature highlights articles or blog entries that are related to Hockey in Society’s areas of interest and that may be of interest to the site’s readers.

Hockey Links

  • Don Cherry was offered an honourary degree from Royal Military College, but declined the offer after at least one faculty member severely criticized the offer. Unfortunately I was on the road and very busy when this story broke, so could not get into the matter in any depth, but it’s an interesting topic – especially around issues of free speech and the politics of honourary degrees. [Globe and Mail]
  • Lots of interesting recent commentary about the potential (likely?) performance-enhancing drug (PED) problem in the NHL. Puck Daddy reviewed excerpts from the autobiography of ex-NHLer Georges Laraque, in which he calls out the NHL and NHL Player’s Association for not inadequate testing for PEDs. [Puck Daddy]
  • Meanwhile, Dick Pound, the former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency who has previously criticized the NHL’s drug testing policies, weighed in on the issue. [Globe and Mail]
  • If you missed our story about efforts to erode homophobia in hockey (in which these two stories were quoted and linked), do check out the two fantastic pieces written about the activism of Patrick Burke, the son of Maple Leafs GM Brian and brother of the late Brendan Burke. [Puck Buddys and Vancouver Sun]
  • The details about the NHL’s overseas television deal. I feel that some media scholar has a thesis-in-waiting examining the NHL’s efforts to grow its brand globally. This broadcast deal is a major part of these efforts. [Globe and Mail]
  • The Ontario Hockey League takes a hard line on dangerous hits, serving up a 20-game suspension for an elbow to the head. Are such suspensions enough to curb destructive violence in hockey? [The Star]

General Sport Links

  • A damning critique of NCAA universities that prioritize “protecting the brand” over dealing with unethical or immoral behaviour in their sport programs. Upsetting stuff not just about Penn State’s attempt to sweep under the rug a sexual abuse scandal, which has now claimed the jobs of the football team’s head coach and the university’s president, but the misplaced priorities of NCAA universities. [CSN Bay Area]
  • A UK study finds that women’s sport attracts only 0.5% of all sport sponsorship, versus 61.1% for men’s sport (mixed sport accounts for the remainder). That means men’s sport receives 122 times more funding that women’s – for the visual thinkers, imagine lining up the Empire State Building (1454 feet) next to a basketball hoop (roughly 12-13 feet, to the top of the backboard) and that gives you a sense of the disparity in dollar terms. [The Guardian; h/t to Hockey in Society reader Malinda for the link]
  • An Australian field hockey player speaks about becoming the third Australian male athlete to come out of the closet. Lots of interesting stuff in this article about the masculine Australian sport culture and how straying from the heterosexual norm carries significant risks. [Sydney Morning Herald; h/t to reader Lori for the link]
  • Hockey in Society contributor Courtney Szto examines why women are so significantly underrepresented in coaching positions. [The Rabbit Hole]
  • Good piece about the payment of athletes in NCAA sport, and the tensions between the amateur ideal in sport and the mythology surrounding the American Dream. [Grantland]
  • The perspective of a CIS athlete at University of Toronto about the psychology of athletes returning early from or playing through injury. [The Varsity]

Filed under Weekly Links Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Is Sidney Crosby Breaking the Rules?

November 6, 2011 by 1 Comment

In the October 3rd issue of Sports Illustrated, David Epstein and Michael Farber wrote a story about Sidney Crosby (‘Getting Inside the Head of Sidney Crosby’). Not surprisingly, given that Crosby hasn’t played in months, the piece focused on The Kid’s efforts to recover from post-concussion symptoms and re-join the Pittsburgh Penguins (who actually seem to be doing just fine without him, at least for now).

The gist of the article leapt out at me. Apparently, Crosby has been receiving experimental, or at least unproven, treatment from a chiropractor named Ted Carrick who uses something called ‘chiropractic neurology’ to treat patients with neurological damage. (The backbone is apparently connected to the head-bone). The particulars of Carrick’s technique aren’t important here (it’s mostly eye exercises according to the article), nor is the fact that the approach tends to be rejected as (horror!) anecdotal by the peer-reviewed crowd. What is significant, though, is that the article focuses on the lengths to which Crosby is now willing to go to get back on the ice after suffering two head shots in four days in January 2011.

Which brings me to another article in the same issue (FYI – it takes a long time for my SI subscription to be delivered to the UK. I’m reading October issues in November. Luxury problems, I know, but just in case you were wondering…). In the scorecard section of Oct 3, Dick Friedman offers an entertaining polemic on antiquated rules in sport (‘Get Me Rewrite’). Why, for example, shouldn’t the ground be able to cause a fumble or shouldn’t there be a serve clock in tennis or a bigger diamond in softball? Interesting questions to be sure as they remind us that the rules of sports are not only governed and managed by living, breathing people, but are also often antiquated left-overs from previous eras. This argument may not stand as a defense of instant replay in baseball (it’s just wrong!) but it does illustrate that those in charge of sports are also in charge of the rules of sports and should be examining, updating and tweaking all of the time.

So why then, did SI choose to focus on the efforts that Crosby is making to heal himself and not on the efforts that should be underway to prevent similar head shots to other players?  Of course, on the one hand, there has been significant media coverage of the NHL’s ongoing negotiations – if not incompetence – in trying to find a middle ground for rules governing hits to the head. On the other, though, the chasm in such reporting is any direct or repeated call for a radical rethinking of the sanctity of hitting in NHL hockey. In Friedman’s column, the examples are funny. Yet, something tells me that Crosby and his family aren’t laughing about the effects of the current contact rules in the NHL. And neither should current and future players who are just one knock away from long, boring spells in dark rooms with no TV.

I don’t dislike hitting. That isn’t the argument. I cheer just like the rest when someone gets blown up on the ice. But I’ve come to realize that it’s just not worth it. It’s not worth it because we’re left watching David Steckel and Victor Hedman after they crunched Crosby when we should be watching (arguably) the best player of our generation skate into his prime. We’re left with collisions orchestrated by middling NHLers instead of the speed and skill of true superstars. And we’re left telling ourselves that players who don’t have their heads up at centre ice deserve to be concussed even though we know it’s a classic rationalization for a problem that we’d rather didn’t exist.

And, not insignificantly, we’re left with Sidney Crosby being left to fend for himself by seeking advice from self-taught brain doctors.

Frankly, the question of whether anyone deserves to be concussed illustrates the depth of the problem and the intractability of the issue. Just change the rules! What are we waiting for? Make rules that put the best players on the ice and allow them to do all of the things that make hockey great. At least make any contact to the head severely punishable. No, it won’t mean the end of concussions, but it will mean the end of some concussions, and importantly it will mean the end of concussions that are so maddeningly preventable.

At the very least let’s ask ourselves the obvious questions. Is Sidney Crosby really breaking the rules by going rogue in his medical treatment? Or are the rules of hockey breaking Sidney Crosby?

Filed under Blog posts Tagged with , , , ,

Weekly Links: Homophobia and Bullying; Grey Areas in Hockey Violence; Mandatory Visors?

October 28, 2011 by Leave a comment

Image from: http://www.torontosun.com

Welcome to Hockey in Society’s Weekly Links post. This feature highlights articles or blog entries that are related to Hockey in Society’s areas of interest and that may be of interest to the site’s readers.

Hockey Links

Andrew Gadsby of Puck Buddies writes an op-ed about homophobia and bullying, in light of the tragic suicide of Jamie Hubley – an openly gay Ottawa teenager who was bullied, in part, because he chose to figure skate instead of playing hockey. A must read. RIP Jamie. [Globe and Mail]

Justin Bourne urges hockey to “accept the gray area” of hockey violence, and makes some excellent points about the ways in which sports are socially constructed: “Sports are a fairly arbitrary collections of rules. . . . It is debatable whether a rule has any fundamental value other than the value people give it. Hockey is not static and fixed: we can add and remove things from it and the only thing that really determines whether it is still ‘hockey’ is our own judgement.” [Backhand Shelf]

Despite Chris Pronger suffering a brutal eye injury on Wednesday, some members of the Philadelphia Flyers refuse to wear a visor. The phrases “too macho to wear a visor” and “longstanding stereotypes about toughness that consider visors an effete accessory” (the  latter a quotation from the New York Times) speak volumes about the culture of hockey. [Puck Daddy]

Travis Hughes believes that the NHL must impose mandatory visors, because players will never accept this condition voluntarily. [SB Nation]

A legal perspective on mandating visors – in short, it can’t be done without the buy-in of the NHL Player’s Association. [Offside: A Sports Law Blog; h/t to Spector's Hockey for the link]

Bruce Arthur argues that, love him or hate him, “Don Cherry will be missed” whenever he leaves the airwaves. Despite the fact that Hockey in Society’s output will likely be cut in half without Cherry, I can’t say I agree with Arthur. [National Post]

Just in case you think Cherry has lost his influence, Bruce Dowbiggen reminds us of his tremendous in and on the sport. [Globe and Mail]

An interesting examination of the “NHL feeder chain” – that is, where NHL players play before making the big leagues. The CHL and NCAA are first and second, followed by European professional leagues. [Puck Worlds]

This is a few years old, but Stu Hackel wrote a great piece about why the instigator rule should remain in hockey. Particularly interesting insights about the Philadelphia Flyers Stanley Cup winning teams of the 1970s, and how the Broad Street Bullies used strategic violence against opponents’ star players in order to win games. [Slap Shot]

The Manitoba Junior Hockey League suspends 14 players and the head and assistant coaches of the Neepawa Natives for hazing, and the RCMP is investigating the incident. Sadly, hazing is very common in minor hockey and strong regulation is very much needed to stamp it out. As for the name “Neepawa Natives”… how on earth has that not been changed? [CTV Winnipeg]

As details about the incident leak out, a well-argued call for police action on hazing incidents. [Buzzing the Net]

Ken Campbell wants Hockey Canada’s residency rules to change, so that children can more easily play hockey in locations other than their home area. Seriously problematic in my opinion, as it gives carte blanche to over-zealous hockey parents to frequently uproot their children in pursuit of a career in professional hockey. [The Hockey News]

More arena politics: Edmonton City Council votes in favour of the Oilers’ downtown arena proposal, because the politicans “believe that other businesses will sprout up quickly in the area around the arena”. [SB Nation]

Finally, the NHL continues its efforts to emulate the NBA’s globalization strategies by signing a major European TV deal. [SB Nation]

Filed under Weekly Links Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Understanding the True Costs of Hockey Violence: Why Anti-Fighting Activists Must Do Better

October 25, 2011 by 4 Comments

Image from: http://www.quickflashnews.com

While I remain firmly entrenched in my anti-fighting stance, two recent events have forced me to examine how I, and others in the anti-fighting movement, communicate our viewpoints and engage with people who do not share our opinions. These moments have given me pause for reflection and led me to an important conclusion:

That the reliance on biomedical evidence to explain the harmful effects of hockey fighting obscures the social ramifications and contexts of this damaging practice.

Let me explain this further. Many people in the anti-fighting movement – myself included – articulate the consequences of fighting primarily through a biomedical understanding its consequences – for example, the prominent advocacy of Ken Dryden relies heavily on evidence about the physiological damage resulting from headshots and concussions. There is certainly an important place in this debate for biomedical knowledge, which has done much to explain the negative health consequences that arise from hockey violence. However, a predominant or exclusive reliance on biomedical understandings of fighting risks obscuring the very serious social implications of the activity.

I am as guilty as anyone in the anti-fighting camp of using medical evidence as a crutch in my attempts to defend my position. And I have come to realize that public intellectuals and sociologists must more frequently attempt the challenging task of translating sociological knowledge into accessible language and inserting these viewpoints into popular debates on hockey violence. After the jump, I explain how I arrived at this realization and offer some suggestions on how better to engage in this process. Read more of this post

Filed under Blog posts Tagged with , , , , , ,

Former Enforcer Jim Thomson’s Web Chat: Don Cherry and Fighting in Hockey

October 18, 2011 by 1 Comment

Jim Thomson appearing on CTV to discuss Cherry's comment (Image from http://www.ctv.com)

Last week The Globe and Mail hosted a live chat with Jim Thomson, the former NHL enforcer whose anti-fighting stance and recent public calling-out by Don Cherry have placed him firmly in hockey’s  spotlight – Thomson has been widely interviewed and quoted in the past weeks, and Hockey in Society’s own courtneyszto posted yesterday about his appearance on CBC News.

The web chat solicited questions from readers, most of which focused on Don Cherry and the role of fighting in hockey. While Cherry has since apologized – an apology which Thomson publicly accepted – Thomson’s statements have relevance far beyond the dispute with Cherry. Personally, I must say that I have been very impressed by the passion and candidness with which Thomson handles the attention he has received and the resoluteness he has shown in defending his views.

The following excerpts from the Globe and Mail web chat offer some fascinating and intelligent insights into Thomson’s experiences in hockey and views on the current state of violence in the sport. You can view the full chat transcript here.

One under-reported aspect of Cherry’s diatribe was his dismissal of the mental health and addiction issues faced by many enforcers. Thomson immediately laid this issue on the table in his first contribution to the chat:

You can’t expose the contradiction of hockey violence much more clearly than this:

Thomson draws upon his experience as a former fighter, and his personal knowledge of retired enforcers, to make some damning statements about the role of fighting in hockey:

Clearly Thomson’s own life post-NHL has causes him to reflect critically on his own role in the culture of hockey violence. His comment about Cherry’s views of “safe” fighting highlight the contradictions between popular discourses about player safety and the role of fighting in hockey:

Thomson is obviously dialed into and opinionated on many of Cherry’s commonly articulated views, including his views on European players:

Finally, I think this exchange says it all:

Filed under Blog posts Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

← Older posts

Newer posts →