March 7, 2000
Sports, entertainment and sports entertainment - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- I am not a sports fan, nor am I a fan of sports entertainment. When I say that, I don’t hate it, I just am not a viewer or consumer of those products. The recent debacle over Marty McSorley’s slashing of Donald Brashear has been one that’s given people in and out of the sports world, pause about hockey and about its place in our society. As the top says, I’m not a hockey fan but this situation warrants a comment from me. (Why? Oh, I don’t know, because it’s my column?)
Hockey is a dangerous sport, by that I mean you’d be damned lucky to have a lengthy career without walking out unscaved or unscratched. I will admit that McSorley’s attack towards Brashear was dastardly and utterly uncalled for. People, including Rafe Mair I might add, have said that the police should be involved and that charges be laid. Hockey may have gotten a little rougher than the days that Maurice Richard or Gordie Howe skated the rinks, but it is still a sport. A sport regulated by the NHL. Marty McSorley’s fate rests solely on the National Hockey League and if the Vancouver Police Department, or any other law authority steps in, it would be a sorry day for democracy. (His fate however, as handed down by the NHL, was a mere slap on the wrist and should be heightened. I suggest he be fined harshly and suspended from the game a la Pete Rose.)
Will hockey become like wrestling? Will it become dependant on selling seats, not about the art of shooting a puck into a net? It reminds me of an old line. Someone goes up to an actor on a doctor show and asks if the thespian is in fact a doctor. He replies, “No, but I play one on TV.” Will Mark Messier be asked, one day, if he’s a hockey player? Will his reply be: “No, I’m actually eating chips for a company on TV commercials. Hockey’s just what landed me that gig.”
I used to watch professional wrestling religiously. Sure, I knew it was fake, but it was show business; it was a glamorised sport (if it ever was one) that harkens comparisons to Shakespeare or a soap opera. I stopped watching wrestling about 8 or 9 years ago. It wasn’t that it was too violent or too stupid, it was just that I found better things to do and better things to become interested in. Professional wrestling has become, like the NHL too violent for some people. Some Manitoban parent’s group demanded that wrestling be turfed from local television because it was either too violent or too sexual. The parent’s aren’t that much happy with what has happened to hockey, I’m sure either.
Professional wrestling has become sports entertainment. It maybe crass and rude for some, but it still deserves a place on the air if the public so desires to watch the garbage. The people running the show make a ton of dough, perhaps too much and in ways none to honest. But, we cannot forget that pro wrestling is in fact just show biz, it’s all about the biz part and money. Wrestling has forever made the line between sports and entertainment fuzzy and difficult to decipher.
At the end of the day, buggers should just stay away from meddling in the innards of hockey, pro wrestling and every other gimmick that floats to the top of our collective consciousness.
Questions and comments may be sent to: editor@thecommentary.ca
An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .