The recent player-fan brawl in Detroit, and the player fight in the South Carolina-Clemson football game crystallizes the problem we have today in sports and society. Sadly, the message it sends is that we are a violent society and we can no longer resolve our differences in a rational, intelligent and mature manner.

Sports is supposed to be the “toy department of life.” A place where we can cheer, laugh, cry and high five athletes’ and teams’ performances. Instead, sports have become a place where fans yell obscenities, drink too much, throw things on the field, players spit on other players, throw things at fans, fight each other and go into the stands to take on the fans. This isn’t sports; this is anarchy, and enough is enough.

The Detroit incident showed the extent of the problem and how everyone deserves a piece of the blame. In this case, pointing a finger of blame is easy. First, Ben Wallace should have been suspended for at least double (12) the amount of games he was suspended for, for starting the incident. Ron Artest’s foul was aggressive, but did not warrant the shove and full response Wallace gave that started the chain of events. Artest is known as a irrational, “hot head” who takes cheap shots. Most players admire his talent, but question his judgment and character. Wallace may not have liked the hard foul he got, especially with the game winding down, but there was no intent to injury, in this case, by Artest. Wallace was a thug.

Artest had a chance to be the hero in the incident by backing off and taking a rest on the scorer’s table. He was fine until a fan threw a drink at him. That’s when he crossed the line and went from hero to suspended for the season villain. There is never any justification for any athlete to go into the stands and fight a fan. The cup of ice or liquid that was thrown at Artest was innocuous and totally unworthy of such a response. What made it even worse was that Artest wasn’t even sure which fan threw it and took on the first guy he thought might have. Once that happened, it was a “you (fan) against us (athlete)” battle. It also invited the involvement and fighting of others fans and players with no regard to innocent people who might get caught in the cross fire. For God’s sake, this is not Iraq, it’s a basketball game.

Artest is gone for the season, barring a successful appeal by the players’ association, and justifiably so. Artest has emotional problems and the NBA has to deal with them. If not, for sure there will be another incident, at some time, which will embarrass the league and make them take action again. The NBA is moving perilously close to losing its profitable image. Their “head in the sand” approach has turned off fans and if not dealt with, will turn off sponsors and the money spigot. Fans are already irritated about how much athletes, and in particular NBA players, make. Add to that, the Kobe affair, the on going spousal-girlfriend abuse by some players, the out of wedlock children born, and any other assorted non conforming incidents, and you have fans ready to take their resentment and disgust from the booing stage to physical confrontation. It’s up to the NBA and the players to defuse that fan frustration and try to return the fans focus and reactions to the game and how it’s played. Otherwise everyone loses.

For a long time I’ve been unhappy with fan conduct. While it may be only a handful of “bad apples”, they have no right to make going to a sporting event a roll of the dice on your safety and a forum for stupidity and abuse. Having said that, I have no sympathy for those fans who came onto the floor and confronted Artest or Jermaine O’Neil. They got what they deserved, and just like there is never any justification for an athlete to go into the stands after a fan, there also is never any justification for a fan to confront an athlete on the field of floor where they play. It’s pure stupidity to take on an athlete who is bigger than you are, and better coordinated. Under the circumstances and in light of what had already happened with the in stands confrontation, if a fan approaches an athlete on the field or floor, then they have every right to protect themselves and launch a pre-emptive strike on the fan. The police should throw those fans sorry butts in jail. And, while you’re at it, arrest those fans who threw stuff at the Pacers when they were leaving the floor for the locker room.

Finally, how did we get to this point? While I think I know, what I don’t know is how we stop it. What happened in Detroit is a reflection of society in general. Gone are the days when kids would settle their differences with an after school fist fight. Now, the score is settled with guns and knives. Gone are the days when looking at someone the wrong way only got a verbal lashing. Now, it’s a life or death confrontation because you “dissed” them. We have lost our moral and common sense judgment. We have a “war mentality.” Our first response to anything we don’t like is to fight and use our biggest weapon, with the intent to harm and hurt, not just to subdue. How we are and act as a culture is directly linked to our leaders and those we look up to. Our mentality now is, if we invade a country for the wrong reasons, then what’s wrong with starting a fight with the fans at a basketball game? Whether it’s the President of the United States, religious leaders or athletes, they have to set a good example. And, the example they set, the decisions they make, and the actions they take, influences us in how we conduct ourselves at a sporting event and in our personal lives.

Let’s hope the magnitude and stupidity of the Detroit incident, and other such incidents in sports, will lead to a self evaluation individually as well as a society. And, that evaluation will make us think before we take any action in our lives. If we can do that, then sports once again will become the “toy department of life.”

I’m Ron Barr.

Ron Barr is an Emmy award winning writer and the host of the nationally and internationally syndicated sports talk show, Sports Byline USA

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