The victim has not filed a criminal complaint.

Anyway, do we really want contact sports to become criminalized? Local DAs (who can be publicity-seeking, remember) prosecuting players after hockey high-sticks, baseball brawls, football spears, NASCAR shuntings and post-race sluggings, etc?

Sure, you can say this particular incident was clearly over the line, clearly not part of the game. But then you're giving local law enforcement an invitation to decide where they'll draw "the line" and maybe you won't like where they draw it.

This kind of incident in pro sports (severe injury from deliberate attack) is pretty rare (try to come up with more than one or two incidents per year).

I think, better to pressure the leagues to handle it. Here, a five-game suspension seems like not enough - ban for the rest of the season and released from his contract should be more like it.

You're correct. It is another sweeping generalization I hate.
But by nature alone of your analogy, you conclude it's the fault of the fan in the jersey, not the player, for touting the player to such a high level.

The player still wants to win. Why else would he or she play? Seriously? I see plenty of retired players jerseys and other memorabilia selling after a player has left the game. So those with merchandising gigs aren't hurting for money.

He should be prosecuted for aggravated battery to the extent that the law allows. This is nothing but thuggery & he should also be banned for the duration of the season.
Other sports have had similar problems - rugby has had several in the past few years & numerous people have been prosecuted.Because one is engaged in "sport" it is not a license to behave malicously or in a reckless fashion. A prosecution or two & some jail time, along with loss of income, should send a claer message to most of these guys.

dd

Yes, the player should want to win, the question is should the player want to win "by any means necessary"?

Fans do have an effect on the performance, sometimes positively, sometimes just the opposite.

I enjoy some sports, but the all encompassing devotion of some fans to me is very puzzling. In the overall scope of things, who wins a specific sporting event is totally irrelevant.

Evidently I touched a nerve, eh David?

I have played and watched plenty of sports over the years. I have seen the decay of sportsmanship on all levels during the past 30 years of competitive sports. It is disgusting. If you think that the behavior exhibited by some/many players is acceptable, then more power to you.

I think this guy should be kicked out of the league. Same with hockey thugs, racing thugs, etc. We as a society deify these people and value winning above all else. That is what is sad and pathetic. The athletes are only part of the problem. I can't believe some of the *fans* behavior as well. Its as if their very existence rises and falls with the performance of the team.

And you think that all the PSAs are done because the players are totally altruistic? Man, I gotta get me some of the kool aid you're drinkin' ;)

Funny, I really did stop watching the news for that very same reason! :D

Except for those freeway car chases.... now those are real nail biters. ;)

True. I don't watch many sports on tv, and also don't watch the news. I read Google news...

And you have information that the PSAs are not altruistic. Break it down. I'd like to see it.

As to nerves - the only nerve touched arrive from the vast generalizations you and others state here, because the fact is behavior exhibited by most players is acceptable. If most behavior exhibited was not acceptable, there probably would be no mention of the incident other than a typical Darwin-like failure of evolution from one brute to another - taking in kind your claim that all professional sports players are brutes, and so this is what brutes do - stomp on each other's faces.

Interesting that "We as a society"? Deify? Again displays such wide-angle inclusiveness that it is hardly true. There are many who choose to view the game as a game.

At the same time, an argument can be made that the society which deifies these players is the one which is most critical of these players, namely many on this thread. Look alone at how many hits this topic has received.

Good assessment. I've often thought one's subscription to a falla under these same auspices.

Would Vince Lombardi, or any of the coaches from his generation, even allow a guy like this to play anymore? He would have been sent packing, for good. Times have changed in sports, and certainly not for the better.

I disagree. Follow the money.

Ridiculous...:rolleyes: