In most sports, it's simply a matter of an overindulgence in testosterone-driven revenge while. In baseball, a fight can be in response to anything as fickle as a batter taking too long to round the bases after clubbing a home run. In basketball, a brawl may ensue if a player takes exception to what is termed a flagrant foul.
Remember in grade school, there was always one kid that was the playground antagonizer, the punk that would target another kid to the point that the kid would become so infuriated that he would retaliate - and more than likely right in front of a teacher...
...the punk backing off with his arms half-raised in mock-innocence, seemingly shocked at the kid's unprovoked outburst of violence?
Right. We've all been there. Aqib Talib was there on Monday night.
Hardly innocent of his own brand of trash talking, Talib nevertheless fell into Carolina receiver Steve Smith's antagonistic trap, lost his cool and paid the price while Smith went on about his business.
Talib's meltdown on the biggest regular season stage the NFL has to offer did more than just cost his team 15 yards, it's likely going to cost him some money in the form of a fine for instigating a fight, and maybe even a weekly paycheck or two if the league determines that his actions on the field during the New England Patriots' controversial loss to the Panthers were due to premeditated malice, given his spotty history.
Logan Mankins too.
The issue is that the Patriots are so short handed and so undermanned due to injury that they can not afford to give away even five yards for a defensive holding, 10 yards for an offensive holding and certainly not 15 yards for a personal foul - not to mention having one of them ejected from the game or suspended.
It is a testament to the coaching and overall discipline of the personnel that they were able to hang on and have a chance to win every single game this season, but it's not fair to them for Talib or Mankins to lose their cool and go after another player for a perceived wrong or idle chatter...
...nor is it fair for either the Patriots or Panthers that Marcus Cannon leg whipped defensive end Charles Johnson, an action that would have cost the Patriots another 15 yards had the officials seen it, the cheap shot most likely costing the Panthers the services of one of their best players.
Perhaps what football needs is an outlet to settle differences, a way for teammates to protect their own. Perhaps they need someone like the Boston Bruins' Jarome Iginla to set this up.
"Does fighting still have a place in today's NHL? My answer is a qualified yes," Iginla wrote in this week's issue of Sports' Illustrated, "I temper my response because I don't know of any player who truly loves fighting. Ideally it would not be a part of the game. But the nature of our sport is such that fighting actually curtails many dirty plays that could result in injuries."
Iginla was writing in response to a growing rumor that the topic of a fighting ban in the sport is scheduled to be revisited at the NHL general managers meeting meeting in March, after being touched upon briefly at last spring's meeting.
The Boston Bruins' forward contends that fighting is an avenue for the players to police their own in regard to dangerous practices that could cause injury, that there's a "purpose behind almost every fight" and that fighting "helps hold players accountable for their actions on the ice, even more so than penalties."
In baseball, the umpires warn both benches if they see tempers starting to escalate on the diamond and are quick to eject an offending player - usually a pitcher for throwing a bean ball. In basketball, double technical fouls are assessed if a scuffle starts on the court and players ejected at the discretion of the referees.
In hockey, the pugilists are sent to the penalty box for five minutes while their teams skate on as a matter of course, and after the game there are no hard feelings and hand shakes all around - which Iginla contends would be vastly different should the league outlaw the practice.
"If [fighting] was taken out of the game, I believe there would be more illegal stickwork," Iginla continues, "most of it done out of sight of the referees; more slashes to the ankles or wrists, and in between pads; and more cross checks to the tailbone,"
"Incidents of players taking such liberties are rare in today's game because fighting gives us the ability to hold each other accountable. If you play dirty, you're going to have to answer for it."
Those who don't follow hockey see the practice as barbaric and dangerous, unaware that the NHL has a defined set of rules for fighting etched in stone in the sport's rule book - and to violate the safety rules for fisticuffs means a game misconduct penalty, which is an ejection and a visit with Brendon Shanahan, the Director of Player Safety for the league, who decides how many games a player misses for bending the rules.
And, yes.
In a sport so defined in it's efforts to promote player safety, the idea of allowing two monstrous football players have at each other under the auspices of a set of "gentleman's rules" to help ensure the safety of the combatants and to help curtail the practices of cheap shots and general ill behavior makes no sense, right?
Who could imagine that Talib and Smith would have each been sent to a penalty box for the following five minutes of possession, spilling over into the next possession until the five minutes were satisfied? Who could imagine that an "Enforcer" on the Panthers' defense would be allowed to go after Cannon for leg whipping Johnson...
...and then afterwards, no hard feelings? Maybe just a suspension or two - because make no mistake, what Cannon did is worthy of a suspension and, had the opposing players had a legal avenue to police themselves, the matter would have been handled swiftly, rather than with the lingering hostilities that we're hearing coming from the Carolina Panthers' players and coaching staff.
Ah, these delusions are getting worse as the season goes on. The Patriots are in the midst of one of the worst plagues of injury in it's history and can ill afford a suspension to a player who already represents the second level on the team's depth chart, while the Bruins are just into their season - their veteran crew dealing with injuries of their own to their blue liners.
I wonder if Iginla can play right tackle...
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