Smith v Smith

I am typically a proponent of keeping sports made to be violent, violent. I do not like the NFL hitting rules, I do not like some of these charging and boarding rules in hockey. I understand why they are there, but I am in the belief that 95+% of these professionals respect each other enough, their careers enough, and what it means if you try to hurt someone enough to know not to resort to violent behavior when playing. What about the heat of the moment you might say, well if they are smart enough to hold up if they get penalized for it, they are smart enough to not do it because they respect each other too.

I am however hoping Brendan Smith gets the harshest penalty possible when Brendan Shanahan rules on the vicious hit he had on Ben Smith. It is not because the hit was that bad, I have seen so many more (see Niklas Hjalmarsson's hit on Jason Pominville), it is because of the unnecessary elbow he threw at the end of the hit while he was projecting his shoulder into Ben Smith's head. 





These are reckless, and there is no place for this in professional sports. I hope a message gets delivered with this hit, and athletes of all sports open their eyes and make sure they are looking out for each other cause who knows, maybe one day you will be teammates.