Joel Haugland
Dear editor:
Notwithstanding rough-and-tumble NHL games, hockey is an outstanding, entertaining, and enjoyable sport.
On the other hand, officials and flamboyant, self-aggrandizing promoters, claiming that “roughing is part of the game” and that players are “heroes,” strips NHL games from the realm of sports.
Sports are characterized by the spirit of fair play and abiding by the rules of sportsmanship, not “roughing up” players on opposing teams.
It should be obvious to anyone with common sense in the head that youngsters watching outrageously wicked hockey tend to behave like “hockey heroes”—at a time when superintendents and teachers are attempting to curb bullying in school yards and advising parents “not to let their children watch violent movies.”
So far, “violent hockey games” have caused too many players serious brain concussions and other bodily injuries; even a few deaths. Enough injuries to make common-sense players hoping to see “roughing” disappear from their games.
Wayne Gretzky, the “Great One,” made it to the top playing smart hockey.
Considering junior hockey and “Hockeyville” youngsters, federal and provincial health authorities have a serious problem to deal with—to prevent innocent young victims from growing up more or less handicapped.
Young children should not do work or participate in sports requiring strenuous efforts before their heart and other vital body organs have reached maturity.
Sincerely,
Joel Haugland
Dryden, Ont.
