Hockey's anti-fighting crusaders should let real men play "a man's game."

Sabres' captain Steve Ott was on the Howard Simon Show in his weekly slot today and he got into a discussion with Simon and Jeremy White concerning fighting and it's role in the NHL.

In case you hadn't noticed, Ott is old-school. When Simon asked if he'd ever been in a line brawl like the most recent Calgary/Vancouver scrum, Ott said he'd been in many line brawls and that it was common in Junior, "probably five or six a year."

Tipper Gore and her Parents Music Resource Center
did battle with Frank Zappa during the 80's.
The soccer-mom mentality began with
Tipper and her overbearing crusade against music.

The brawl between Calgary and Vancouver--about which much has been written including a snipe from ESPN baseball analyst Peter Gammons--has once again brought fighting in hockey to the forefront.

And not in a good way either as it would seem that more and more people, including media members, are crusading against it.

Ask anyone who'd followed hockey for the last 40-50 years and they'll tell you that what occurred in Vancouver was commonplace back then. And pretty sure that Ott would feel right at home playing the likes of the Broadstreet Bullies and the Big, Bad Bruins.

So the question posed to Ott is this, with the NHL cracking down on fighting, and less of these tough-guy, line brawls happening does Ott, having gone through junior expecting stuff like that, miss it and take solace in a kinder, gentler NHL?


"I do miss it a little bit," he said in a gleaming tone. "There's a time and place for it. It's the sport that it is."

That's what the GR-boys' "Soccer-mom" mentality fails to understand about the sport of hockey. It is what it is. If you are in it for the grace, watch figure skating.

Ott continued, "I hate the conservative people that have an opinion and the media people who have an opinion on fighting in hockey, it drives me absolutely crazy. Simple fact, if they don't like it, don't watch the sport."

To keep things in perspective, Ott was a first round selection (25th overall) by Dallas in the 2000 draft. He's a top-6/top-9 forward who has scored 100 goals and 160 assists in 660 NHL games.

Coming out of junior he had 116 goals and 237 points in 174 games for the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL.

Ott is no lunkhead goon. The guy can score.

But he's old-school and he understands that the game of hockey has other appealing aspects that fans get excited about.

"You come to the First Niagara Center and what are people cheering for? Fights, goals and big hits usually," he said. "It's at the forefront of our NHL, being a tough, hard to play against sport."

Simon counterpoints saying that as a fan they could still have a rough and tumble league without fighting.

Ott explains to him that liberties are taken with teammates which go unnoticed by most watching. And those things are a big deal to those playing the game.

Fighting is a way for the players to police themselves should things go to far.

If they took fighting out of the game Ott couldn't stand thinking about it.

In the next 10 years if (when?) the league takes over policing the game by taking fighting out, Ott says unequivocally, "You're gonna see a rise in bad things happening." And he points to the present, a present which includes the instigator rule, "I'm a true believer that that's why we're seeing all these head shots now."

White offers up the fear of being suspended as a deterrent to which Ott replies, "I don't really think the guys care [about being suspended.]"

The dream of playing in the NHL trumps that. Players are taught certain things along the way like "finish your checks." It's a fast game and things happen, sometimes unavoidable things. And, he points out unlike a contact sport like football, there's no out of bounds.

So you have players in an enclosed area taught to play hard and taught that it's a man's game. And you have the GR boys and Tipper Gore's throughout the country who just can't seem to grasp the concept. Yet they trumpet their care and compassion for the players.

Co-host White brings up the point that people care about the athlete's well being and want to protect these guys from the long-term affects of playing a tough game. He asked Ott if he could appreciate that aspect.

"I don't agree with them," Ott came right out and said. "It's a dream come true to play every single day in the NHL. If you told me I would lose 5, 10 years off of my life, yes, yes I would take this opportunity again in a heartbeat."

Photo Getty Images
Illustration by Harrison Mooney

"Why take fighting out of the sport"? asked Ott. "It's a man's game."

"A man's game." This is the type of thing that the sheltered ones don't understand.

It's rumored that Howard Simon, Jeremy White, The Hockey News' Ken Campbell and ESPN's Peter Gammons all jumped in the mini van to join Tipper Gore for tea to discuss what Ott meant by "it's a man's game."

While they were at it, Ott offered Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman the opportunity to join him for a beer and maybe enlighten him as to the nuances of hockey and hockey fights. After all they're both living their dream playing a man's game.