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Inside the Crystal Ball "NHB: Sport?"
With NHB fighting back on cable pay per view, The future for mixed martial arts events looks bright. The key to the progression of NHB will be the stigma that is associated with it. Many people still think the NHB is the most brutal sport there is. Some Politicians object to the choke hold arguing that it can cause serious injury or death. Parents object on the basis that it teaches children that violence is acceptable.
In either case, they’re both wrong.
Let’s first take a look at what some politicians object to. They do not like the carotid artery choke which is known as a rear naked choke or mata lion among other names. It cuts off the blood flow to the brain rendering the person unconscious. Among other things, if held for an extreme amount of time, it can cause brain injury or death. That’s an acceptable argument if it wasn’t hypocritical. These same politicians say nothing about Football, Hockey, NASCAR, Horse racing, etc... which are considerably more dangerous than anything mixed martial arts has to offer.
Lets take football, for example, where the key to the game is to stop the offense. How do you do that. By tackling the opponent. More specifically, sacking the quarterback. I know that that doesn’t happen often, but neither does a rear naked choke. It’s just one of many outcomes that can happen during a game or fight.. What happens when a QB gets sacked? Well if your Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Joe Montana, or Roger Staubach you end up with many, many concussions. What’s a concussion - primarily, it is the bruising of the brain. Why is the bruising of the brain which can lead to secondary (possibly more serious) complications (even death) more acceptable than a choke?
Let’s not even get into the fact that football players are expected or allowed to play injured. I’ve seen games where lineman were wearing casts to protect their broken arms. This is absolutely not allowed in NHB. Why is it even allowed in football? How about the infamous leg braking of Joe Theisman or Ed McCaffrey on National Televison. That was brutal. What about Gil Byrd being paralyzed during a Jets football game. Safety needs to be more of an issue for football rather than NHB.
What about Hockey? They’re in a cage just like NHB - only worse. They have plexy glass to contend with that doesn’t give way like a chain link fence (used in NHB) does. On top of that, here are guys going in with what are tantamount to knives on their feet and then given a stick and helmet and pads to do combat against each other with. And they seem to like to pretend they’re in NHB matches while the game is going on. Where are the politicians pushing to ban it? What about Eric Lindross and his concussion problems? This is suppose to be safer than NHB fighting.
My point is that all of these sports have safety policies in place (even with the potential for life threatening injuries) which make them acceptable to the politicians. They are all great sports and have great followings. But so does NHB fighting. And that seems to get lost.
But unlike all of the other sports, NHB is true to what it is. You will never see a baseball game break out in a NHB match. They only do what they have trained to do.
Why is one or two techniques the sole reason to keep NHB from national venues when the main stream sports suffer greater and more frequent injuries. NHB competitors do not want to cripple their opponents. They know that one day they may end up on the wrong end of a technique. They want to continue to fight so they use control to make the opponent tap out rather than just pulling the trigger and crippling their opponent.
You can't gradually throw a pitch (and expect to stay in a game) or crash into a wall at 150 mph like you can a choke.
It's time for the politicians to put NHB in perspective along with the main stream sports. Then and only then will the misplaced stigma of brutality be lifted.
Next, Parents and NHB... SN
(7/6/02)
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