How Do You Rationalize a Riot?

Senseless.

How can anyone rationalize reasons for a riot?

There’s no question that the behavior of some rowdy idiots further spoiled a rotten evening for Vancouver Canucks fans across the city, British Columbia and around the globe. To lose Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, no matter the fashion, is maddening enough. However, for people to react as if losing is not a proper reason to set of vandalism and violence is a major error.

There’s never a good reason to riot. Never.

Many lamented that it’s just a game; a natural reaction of course, and at its core, they’re right. Although sporting events tend to represent communities on a grandiose level, they don’t hold the gravitas or day-to-day importance of schools, hospitals, police and fire houses and political office… okay, not the last so much. They are just games, no matter the money and promotion at stake.

Yet, in saying that these folks are rioting over a game is somewhat excusing that rioting for any other reason is justified. It’s not.

Many questioned why these ‘fans’ of the losing team riot. As if doing it for winning a championship is perfectly acceptable. Any form of vandalism, even if it doesn’t lead for a full-scale riot, has grave consequences. Boston Police and Emerson College can tell you this.

For those who can comprehend a politically-charged riot over anything else; admittedly, I want to agree with you. However, there’s a problem with that train of thought. The gravity of the reason doesn’t replace damaged property. Flipping cars, looting stores or fighting other drunk fools because you’re upset about a team’s loss or a bad economy causes more pain to yourself and others than whatever you’re feeling at that very moment.

Communities are destroyed all the same. People are maimed, maybe even killed, all the same.

No matter the so-called reason, there's no justification for this.

A prominent tweeter who I respect made a drastic error in wondering why we’re surprised that this happened because the sport itself seems to foster this behavior. The idea that being allowed to fight in hockey has some direct correlation to the abhorrent behavior of a bunch of rowdy idiots is one of the most shortsighted assumptions I have ever heard.

Football – ‘pigskin’, that is – has more controlled violence with every play, but it’s still violence nonetheless. Is the game itself responsible for those few fans that decide to fight in the stands during rivalry games?

Was the heated rivalry between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants responsible for the beating of Bryan Stow back in April? [Though someone tried to say he had it coming.]Are so-called ‘brawls’ in baseball in direct correlation with any fisticuffs that may occur during and after the games?

Are any of the comically bad shove-fests in basketball an influence on those same kinds of unsavory moments between fans?

It’s easy to allude to the tweeter’s reasons for that belief, but at its base, there’s a disdain for the game of hockey. To each her or his own, right? Yet, to paint a broad stroke based on such nonsense is just that; nonsense.

This guy is just beyond dumb.

Finally, it’s hard to understand the nationalism behind all of the chatter. My fellow Americans don’t have a glowing history of being good losers and we certainly don’t know how to be good winners, either. If someone said that this is a result of almost twenty years of pent up Canadian aggression for not bring the Stanley Cup home, they’d be wrong. To think those that believe Wednesday’s rioters displayed un-Canadian behavior is even more so. It’s unbecoming of any person, regardless of geography.

Respect.

It’s all a shame because for the last two months, we witnessed some outstanding games from the National Hockey League. Game 7 of this Stanley Cup Final – featuring two teams that apparently wouldn’t rate well for a championship series; a Canadian franchise and an American team with little national recognition – scored the 2nd highest-rated league game since 1974. It was the best involving a Canadian team since Montreal bested Philadelphia in six games in 1973. Not counting for the enormous viewing at bars throughout New England, many Canadian markets and true hockey depots stateside, Game 7 was the apex of the 2010-11 season as the league continues gaining tremendous momentum. It was a game – and series – that lacked the superstars outsiders to the sport demand, but not the passion and intensity that made you watch in the first place.

However, for many, it’ll be remembered for the idiocy of a few that couldn’t handle “wait until next year”.

[All images courtesy of Reuters via the Vancouver Sun]

We Be Puckin' on The Exchange

via Tampa Tribune

So if you missed the first three episodes of The Exchange, do yourselves a favor and take a listen to each. For quick recaps:

• Our debut featured Lahne Mattas of Steelergurl, one of the more popular Pittsburgh Steelers-themed sites going. We chatted on the NFL Draft that would take place later that week, including potential picks and the cloud that loomed over the festivities with the ongoing lockout.
  
• Our second show provided a lengthy conversation about the ongoing NBA playoffs, some quick points on the previous week’s NFL Draft and a quick moment to reflect on the death of Osama bin Laden.
  
• Last Tuesday’s show – extended to 90 minutes – gave us a fantastic discussion on sports ratings, the narrative of big versus small markets, announcers and the ‘Inferno of Idiocy’ thanks to Paulsen of Sports Media Watch.

Tomorrow, Sumit & I chat up hockey.

Say what?!?!

No, for real, we’re talking puck this week. We’ll have two guests this week:

• Angie Lewis (@LadyHatTrick) covers the Washington Capitals for The Hockey Writers as well as local high school teams for the Washington Post. She also runs All We Do is Puck. You can check an interview she did explaining more on the game with friend of Scribe, Mia Jackson of Sideline Pass.
  
• Andrew Bucholtz (@AndrewBucholtz) – who contributed to this Norman Einstein’s piece for me last year – is the editor of Yahoo! Canada’s CFL blog, The 55-yard Line. He also runs Sporting Madness, where he talks up pretty much anything where there’s a game, including hockey.

There are plenty of readers and listeners who are unfamiliar with the game, but find themselves caught up in it this time of year. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are arguably the best in all North American sports and these last few weeks have once again lived up to those lofty claims. We figured this would be a great time to give you a chance to learn a bit about the players, coaches, teams and other intricacies of the game.

Yet, the NHL has also made waves for other reasons in the last several days; Sean Avery’s (New York Rangers) public support of gay marriage & a few reactionary tweets that it inspired, relocation rumors involving the Atlanta Thrashers & City of Winnipeg, the shocking death of Rangers enforcer Derek Boogaard, etc. Whatever we can address in a timely manner, we shall as some of these matters might seem familiar to other sports.

So do yourselves a favor and tune in. If you haven’t, follow and get into The Exchange on BlogTalkRadio.

Homework

The best bloggers strive for quality, but many days, they use quantity to at least keep it fresh.

Forgive the lack of activity, but a video courtesy of links from Fang's Bites got the mind going a bit.

If you remember those middle school homework assignments where you had to compare and contrast characters in a selected text, here's a chance to sharpen those minds. Number 2 pencils are optional.

For those who have not caught it on television or at least YouTube, take a look at the first video. It's a bit long (over eight minutes), but you need every detail.



Now, observe this 'classic' from two years ago. About a quarter of the time of the first clip.



Besides the sports, the teams, the level of competition and the physical makeup of the participants, what sticks out to you about these clips?

This shall be fun.

Overlooked

As the final hours of the observed holiday of Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday dwindle, I wanted to relay a story from Yahoo! Sports as well as ESPN regarding one of sports' most overlooked moments.

It was fifty years ago on Friday that Willie O'Ree took a shift for the Boston Bruins, becoming the first black player to ever play in an NHL game. Though several others were given tryouts in the fifties, he was the first to have been called up and suit up. His time was brief and his overall NHL career was short. His recognition has grown slowly over the past decade, yet in this era of instant entertainment and information, O'Ree's name has finally become one to search.

Over a week ago, a few people asked me about my thoughts about the unfortunate incident with Kelly Tilghman in regards to her comments about Tiger Woods. I declined to delve into the story for many reasons, including already having been spent from a recent conversation about race that incensed me to no end. I felt that there are many writers who have spoken in a far better manner than I ever could, so adding to the fray would have been fruitless, in my opinion. However, when I heard that the Bruins were going to honor O'Ree and that the league will duplicate its efforts later this month at its All-Star festivities in Atlanta, I was excited to know that his story would be told admist all of the insanity in sports at the moment.

Personally, I've always been at least a casual fan of hockey, contrary to what my skin tone may tell the sporting public at-large. When I first came on the air for WHCR's What's Going On back in August, I had the honor of speaking with him and assisting with the interview. O'Ree was extremely insightful and encouraged by the fact that though there are still few minorities in the game, there is an interest from fans about trying to diversify the game. O'Ree and I discussed the common experiences of being black and in Boston, an oil-and-water story that is never fully told in proper context. We discussed his role in mentoring some of the game's dynamic players over the past twenty years such as Grant Fuhr and Jarome Igilna. Most of all, listeners got the sense of a man who wanted to use his footnote to build a chapter in the long history of the NHL, as well as all of sports. Again, it was an honor, but I hope that in another fifty days, let alone years, the sporting public won't need to scour for information about him.