Honesty As A Man

Today's Chuck Norris Fact:

Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.

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I'm very honest and secure in my manhood. This should be readily apparent by my Zebra-striped Land Rover, my willingness to carry a bag and refer to it as a "man-purse", my fathering of two children...you get the general idea. However, apparently, I'm also totally a man because I enjoy that hockey and lacrosse still have fighting.

There are many men out there just like me, but my enjoyment of fighting is not necessarily from some sort of bloodthirstiness that beats in me. I actually enjoy hockey and lacrosse more because they allow fighting, and mostly because their continued permission of fighting makes them more real, more honest. Look at basketball; there's still fighting in that sport from time to time, driven by the increased physicality of the game that has arisen over the last 30 years or so. Such physicality coupled with intense competition leads to frustration, which leads to anger, which eventually centers on another player, leading to fights. However, when a fight breaks out in basketball, it usually degenerates into a full-blown brawl, with several people in the middle, and "skirmishers" on the edges who run in from time to time, throw a punch, then run straight back out. Watch any basketball fight of the last 20 years, and you'll see this demonstrated time and again. Basketball fights are not honest that way. Basketball players seem to have this tendency to fight like cowards. You might have one or two guys who are serious about it, but these other guys see their opportunity to take out their own frustrations and do so in this cowardly fashion, running in to throw their punches then running right back out of harm's way, as though they've done nothing. Given basketball's propensity for pampering overpaid "thugs" or harboring mouthy prima donnas, and given the "mean streets" backgrounds of many of the players, where an "honorable fight" is having a guy run up and sucker-punch you, or gun you down in a drive-by, again, these sorts of actions are not astonishing.

Hockey fights or lacrosse fights are not ANYTHING like this. In a fight in these sports, you have one guy who gets mad at another guy. They discuss the issue, then they drop the gloves together and lock up. They duke it out while everyone else pretty much stands around and watches. If anything else happens with other players, it is likewise one-on-one. Other players might even lock up, man-to-man, without fighting. Nobody runs in and out of the various scrums, trying to get in cheap shots or weak punches then run away again to safety. The main fighters get their frustrations out, fall to the ice/astroturf, the refs break them up, and they go to the penalty box, where they sit for five. After this, it's pretty much all over. The game continues, things proceed as normal, and everyone is happy. This kind of fighting has been happening in the NHL for years and years, and it's simple, honorable, and real. It's almost ideal; it lets players stick up for themselves and their team, prove to everyone they're ready and willing to do so. It lets them deal with issues on the ice, and it gets the issue over with quickly. It also allows them to build respect, not fear; it's difficult to get in a fight with someone, a real, honorable fight, without coming out with some measure of respect for them and their willingness to stand up that way. But hockey fights are never intimidating; and they're almost always man-to-man, straight-up fights.

The simplicity and honor in this really appeals to me, and makes me wonder why there are so many people who think hockey and lacrosse are somehow lesser sports, less serious sports, for permitting this to go on. If people could solve their own differences like this, demonstrating a willingness to pay the price for their own honor and beliefs as we used to do, I think we'd all have a much better attitude and much more respect and thoughtfulness between everyone in the world today. We work too hard to insulate ourselves from the consequences of our actions, and as a result, we put our own will in the place of God's will, or the common good, or anything important or valuable; when you have no consequences for doing so, you have no incentive to do otherwise. We hide behind the anonymity provided by the Internet to rail against many different things, but very few of us actually stand up and say, "I'm Chris Mallow, I believe this is wrong, and I'm willing to fight and pay the price for my family, my organization, my beliefs, my opinions, and my honor."

Besides, no matter how many of you would deny it, sometimes a good fight is actually pretty fun to watch.

Thanks for reading along.