Sports v. reality

I'm tired of hearing about "pampered, overpaid sports stars." Yes, they are pampered and yes many are overpaid, but we're missing the point.

For one thing, while many are very much overpaid by any standards of economic justice, they're not by the cold standards of the economic system in which we live. You should, rather, think of their salaries as a measure of how much they are worth to their bosses and through that just how much of a Big Business professional sports really is.

They're pampered by their teams for much the same reason: They are a valuable asset, an investment in hopes of profit, and you don't want them damaged. They're pampered by the fans because they're emblematic of displaced dreams of success. The first gives them money, the second gives them fame.

So when you see them acting out, remember that it's not because they're spoiled brats, it's because they're rich and famous. Well, okay, that means they are spoiled brats, but you get my point.

The worst part of this tolerance of selfishness is the unwillingness of most professional sports to treat violence in the game - and I don't mean aggressive play like a hard block or some pushing in the paint or even a brushback pitch, I mean violence - seriously. And it's damn well about time it was taken seriously and regarded as just that: violence. Not as "part of the game," but as physical assault. Yeah, yeah, I know all about fines and suspensions that cost some of these players little more than pocket change. What I'm talking about is actual enforcement, actual consequences.

What prompted this is that as the Toronto Star reports, in a hockey game Monday night,

Vancouver Canucks star Todd Bertuzzi ... sucker-punched Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore, leaving him with a concussion and a fractured neck. ...

Bertuzzi came up behind Moore, reached around and punched him in the face before landing on top of him. Moore fell face first and had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher. ...

He suffered cracked vertebrae in his neck, a concussion, deep cuts to his face, and abrasions on his cheek, forehead and upper lip.

The incident, apparently in retaliation for a hard hit Moore made in a previous game, followed Bertuzzi's repeated attempts to goad Moore into a fight. Failing that, he grabbed Moore's sweater with one hand and reached around to punch him in the face with his gloved hand before pushing him forward onto the ice. Moore lay in a pool of blood until he was carried off on a stretcher.

"Regardless of the fact that this involves a player in the National Hockey League, this will be a routine assault investigation," Vancouver police Constable Sarah Bloor told reporters.

"Crown counsel will be responsible for making a decision as to whether or not anyone is charged."

Whether or not?

"I have stood by in amazement at hockey players permitted to pound each other to a pulp when if the same thing were done outside the arena, it would instantly result in criminal charges," said Toronto lawyer Julian Falconer, who practises both criminal and civil law.

"If those same fists were flying in a barroom there would be criminal charges and I can conceive of no reason why there wouldn't be charges in an arena," he said.

But here it's "if" someone is charged.

Perhaps there will be charges. But the truth is, if the powers-that-be in professional sports really want to get rid of the violence that is not part of the game, if they really mean what they say, they will have to not only not oppose but welcome such charges. Then and only then can anyone believe they're serious.

Footnote: Bertuzzi has issued a tearful apology after a day of silence and it appears Moore will recover fully. Both of those should affect the severity of Bertuzzi's legal consequences; they should not change the fact of it.