On all levels, from fans without respect for other fans and players without respect for their fellow competitors, sportsmanship is a dying practice. The NHL has remained a bastion of sportsmanship in professional athletics but, even in hallowed leagues, selfishness and an unchecked disdain for one’s opponents have reared their heads.
Fans are responsible for the atmosphere in the stands at a game, just as they are for their conduct on the street as a representative of the club they support. Words like “sportsmanship” have positive connotations that are constantly sullied by the loathsome, anti-social behaviors of so-called “fans.” By not competing within the rules, and lacking heed for the well-being of their opponents, many players have also failed to set a good example. While it’s expected that an athlete may — and likely will — get hurt in the course of playing their sport, it should be a side-effect of the rigor of the activity, not the result of a low-brow, underhanded cheap shot.
Sucker punches, knee on knee contact, elbows up high … swinging a stick at an opponent’s face … are all evidence that, in the perpetrators, respect for their competitors is distinctly absent.
Worse, though, than the implications of unsporting behavior on the ice is the bad behavior of a team’s supporters. Professional athletes are paid participants and are highly compensated for the work they do, the sacrifices they make and the risks they take. Fans, however, have no such security. They pay to enjoy a game, they pay to participate and that participation is often soured by the acrimonious input of individuals who think being a fan means being full of bile and vitriol towards the fans of a rival team.
To point out the aforesaid anti-social behavior of mean-spirited fans is to highlight a much larger societal issue. There is a profound lack of respect and decorum pervading areas far beyond arenas and blogs. The lack of intelligent discourse between fans of rival teams is disheartening. It underscores the devolution of interpersonal communication, which has declined to the point where monosyllabic epithets are the highest — or at least most preferred — form of expression.
Hockey players, in general, are renowned for their class and composure. Fans of the sport, as ambassadors of their favorite clubs and of hockey itself, would do well to follow examples of sportsmanship; doing so would create an atmosphere in which even those of differing opinions could speak freely, without unpleasant, boorish consequences.
It’s easy to scream than an opposing player sucks (even one long since retired), but careful observation of such a statement would often reveal it to be untrue. In sports, the object of an opposing fan’s derision is often the most-skilled player, a difference-maker … the bane of that fan’s existence: someone who makes it hard for that fan’s team to succeed.
It is much harder to give credit where it is deserved, and to recognize the accomplishments of one’s opponent is a sign of being a bigger person than one who stoops to infantile speech and harassment.
Sport was, at one point, the epitome of class. Recent scandals, badly behaving players and unchecked excesses have marred the pursuit, and fans that contribute to the poisonous atmosphere have also aided in the ruination of sport.
When classless individuals participate in athletics both on the pitch and in the stands, it lowers the bar … and those who still long for intelligent discourse and high-class performances are left wanting. Their only viable option is to act in the manner they believe to be worthwhile, while excluding the participation of those who would attempt to lower the standard.