Fighting Foofaraw

Although this year's fighting debate has already gone 11 rounds, Serge Savard just stepped into the ring with these comments:

"If I do the same thing (as Simon did) on the street, what do you think will happen to me? I'd be jailed."

This is an argument that has never made sense to me. If you crosschecked some poor unsuspecting schmuck in the small of the back while walking down the street, you'd be jailed. If you threw a perfectly clean hipcheck at some annoying mallrat, you'd be jailed. If you took your stick to the park and started firing 6oz vulcanized rubber discs toward a mime at speeds over 90mph, you'd be jailed. It wouldn't even matter that you were technically aiming for the fountain behind the mime and the mime just happened to be in the way.

There are things that happen in every sport that are not tolerated off the field of play. By playing the game, you're accepting some risks by implied consent.