USA Today
On Tuesday night, the hockey world once again saw the ugly side of fighting. Career enforcer Brian McGrattan, playing for the AHL’s San Diego Gulls, was knocked unconscious in a vicious bout with defenceman Daniel Maggio of the San Antonio Rampage.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2609368-the-horrific-side-of-hockey-fights-on-display-yet-again-in-brutal-ahl-brawl?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial
It looks like the career enforcer was the one to get enforced.
I am the first one that loves a good fits a cuffs (in a ring with two people evenly matched) and would not want to break up a long standing tradition but I think it is time for those that DON’T GIVE A PUCK to take a good look at re-configuring their rules somewhat.
Chipped teeth, bloody lips, black eyes OK but getting knock unconsciousness is taking the sport too far.
Granted that throwing hands has been a big attraction and a long time part of what hockey is, BUT.
When there is so much emphasis put into pulverizing the competition in actual combat, I think the true meaning of a SPORT is being grossly ignored.
There are teams that specifically hire guys that can’t play hockey worth a shit but they are good with throwing hands. They are called enforcers. Their main objective in a game is not to score a goal but to put some of the better players on the opposing team into sick bay.
So many changes have been made in sports like football to protect the players from severe injury, especially concussions, I think it is about time the PUCKERS do the same.
I know; all the macho guys and machoess gals out there love to see the PUCKERS beating each-others brains out. What the hell have they been teaching their kids about sportsman like conduct.
There has to be many fans out there that will insist hockey would not be the same if fighting was prohibited. I say nonsense. I may take a season or two for them to adjust but they will all come around.
The game is rough enough with what they call body checking that is perfectly legal. All well and good but to stand toe to toe and hammer one another is taking the sport of hockey too far.
The game can be played with as much intensity without out hand to hand combat as it can be with with brawls as the video demonstrates.
The most amusing thing to me is watching the referees standing there for minutes watching the players demolish one another.
Take a look back at sports like wrestling, football, boxing where shots to the head are commonplace. Many players later in life are total basket cases because of the pounding they took through the years.
When a person is young, they can withstand a fair amount of brain-scrambling but when they get a little older, that is when the after-effects of the beatings surfaces.
There are 1,000’s of cases just like this we never hear about.
FOLKS; it is all about $$$$$$$$$. The owners of hockey teams and other hard-hitting combat sports love it when their guys kick the shit out of each-other. That is what brings in the $$$$$$$.
Here are a couple examples:
So I contend that the owners of these combat sports are the first ones that do not want to see the rules changed. 9 dollar a glass beer sold by the train loads and all the violence the fans can stand; that is what fills the seats.
While the greedy owners are laughing all the way to the bank, their players are being carried to sick bay on a stretcher and spend their senior years in a basket or padded cell.
Dictionary.com
1.
an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling,wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.
2.
a particular form of this, especially in the out of doors.
3.
sports, (used with a singular verb) such athletic activities collectively:
Sports is important in my life.
4.
diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime.
5.
jest; fun; mirth; pleasantry:
What he said in sport was taken seriously.
6.
mockery; ridicule; derision:
They made sport of him.
7.
an object of derision; laughingstock.
I don’t see any reference to taking off ones head!!
I would highly recommend that everyone go see the film with Will Smith called Concussion. It may give the a different concept of what head trauma is all about.
I think Smith did a marvelous acting job and should have been on the list of people nominated for the Oscar.
I wonder if anyone snapped up the seats Spike and company gave up?
The Goomba Gazette 
“I went to the fights, and a hockey game broke out.” -Rodney Dangerfield