I’ve wondered this before, & here I am watching the local news on TV. They’re talking about the local hockey team & showing a clip of two players in a slug fest. Nothing new about that & yes, it’s fun to watch. What I’m wondering about now ( though I rarely do give it a thought ), is why hockey players get away ( to a certain degree ) with having fights & yet, any other sport it’s put to a stop immediately & fines are dished out. Why is that ??
I went to the fights last thursday and a hockey game broke out. It’s called “goon” hockey and is promoted within the business, notice the padding and does it make sense to punch a guy in the head when he is wearing a helmet?? and why the holding on to each others sweater?? where in the players manual does it say to do that. You can’t beat pond hockey-that’s the real game.
Why???..People don’t bitch when they see it at a hockey game.
As a psychologist, I’ll answer it and then I will lock the thread because it is unrelated as the OP has admitted.
There are several ways to learn, and one of them is by observation. When something about a behaviour appeals to a given personality, they find they identify with that behaviour, and they internalize it, often by engaging in it themselves and developing prowess within the associated culture.
I have no idea why hockey, of all sports, should be so pugilistic, except that it must have appealed to a pugnacious mind set early in its inception, and the sport never managed to get rid of it. So, it endures as much as the skates and the rules endure. If you want to be a Boy Scout, you wear the necker and knot and the rest of the paraphernalia, and you do as scouts are meant to do. Same applies to hockey. It is entirely contextual, as all behaviour tends to be.
I am reminded of something my Scottish priest told me. He said in America football is played by louts and watched by gentlemen, while in England football is played by gentlemen and watched by louts. There is some truth to it such that it elicits a smile, but of course it is not largely true.
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.