violence and North American sports

Give examples....what about European soccer(or football), where the fans are a bunch of drunken morons constantly rioting?

You have a point there

Actually yeah I saw a goalie get hit by a coin/object last week, but the fans are the fans. What I was talking about was the level of violence in the field. I mean at least in soccer they encourage sportsmanship and harsh tackles are penalized...

When I started this thread I was actually talking about contact Ice hockey in particular. In hockey, they hit, they "enforce", they fight, and the crowds are cheering them on during these bouts. You could blame the Bertuzzi thing on the NHL allowing violence in the rink. I like hockey, and I don't mind watching non-contact hockey, although it would probably require a bigger rink size, but I don't think most hockey fans would like to watch that. Anyone else wouldn't mind?

Traditionally, a big reason NHL is popular is the fights. I think it's calmed down a bit(obviously more than that this year). But in general, hockey is really the only sport here with a lot of on-field violence. Football is constant hitting, and fights are pretty much non-existent.

Every year there's always a handful of baseball fights. Too many egos on the field, and God forbid a baseball comes within 6 inches of you. The whole "charge the mound" took a life of it's own pretty recently(within the last 10-15 years) and has happened more and more.

The reason there is violence in North American sports has a lot to do with North Americans not being poonans, and playing a contact sport. When you are banging against a guy for an hour or two, emotions will run high at times. Simple as that.