<p>“Of course my daughter plays rugby so I understand the joys of physical contact- to feel is to live.”</p>
<p>A excellent quote from EM. Having played for a decade “to feel is to live”. Yes, it’s like that.</p>
<p>Most team sports have some level of physical contact that is expected in the run of play, even baseball. Usually a fight occurs when someone crosses the line established by the spirit of the game. Fights in baseball rarely occur after a clean collision at the plate between catcher and runner. However if the runner goes out of his way to take out the catcher, then batters start getting hit. I can’t remember the teams but a few weeks ago a baserunner nailed the catcher even though the catcher had no possible play for an out. His next at bat, pitch to the back, and so on… till the benches cleared…</p>
<p>Fighting sometimes occurs to bring things back in line as a calculated effort to bring the game into order. </p>
<p>Having reffed soccer for a decade as well, I know when a ref decides to put his whistle in his pocket, a fight will break out eventually at the HS level and above. Fights occur because players feel the officals have no taken control of the game. In soccer the first 10 minutes are called framing the game. In other words you are letting the players “know” what is and isn’t going to be tolerated today. I watched the US and Mexico yesterday and the ref let em play to a certain extent… he was very good and the match was excellent. </p>
<p>In the baseball situation I described the umpire should have just tossed that runner for nailing the catcher ( the runner had to take two steps wide to hit the catcher away from home plate) and things would have settled. Instead it fell on the teams to sort it out. </p>
<p>In sport a good offical sees things brewing and takes steps to chill out the players involved.</p>