Violence in Sports

I've never liked hockey. I live in Alberta and avoid hockey like the plague. I hear it said that hockey is a very smart game, and the players are intelligent, and that makes me think, 'Okay, I'm intelligent. Why don't I get it?'. This morning I realized why. I've never watched a game for more than a few minutes. As soon as someone loses it and starts fighting, I can't watch anymore. I don't like watching sports anyway, so I won't pretend I'd be a huge fan if not for the fighting, but I might be able to sit through a live game once in a while at least. But then I ask myself, 'Why does the fighting bother me?' It doesn't bother me near as much in boxing or wrestling. The reason is they're not fighting as part of the competition, they're losing their tempers and any control their parents hopefully taught them, and just flailing at each other, exactly like they do in a pub brawl. Who decided this was acceptable as part of a respected sport? Immediately I lose any respect for the combatants, just as I would in the pub, except at least there, they probably have the excuse of drunkenness, not a good one I admit. The same phenomenon is happening in other team sports, like soccer and lacrosse, and I think that as parents and role models we need to teach kids to control this emotional behavior, on and off the field, and we need to hire coaches who don't stand for a behavior that wouldn't be accepted anywhere else in life.