Quote:
Originally Posted by August
Lol, look at it this way. If NHL hockey or NFL football were ever played without pads and helmets there would be far more carnage and death than the most intense rugby game ever played! 
Our games are so tough you could die if you play them without armoring up. |
All jokes aside, I think the game has become a bit more brutal and dangerous since I played. A 17 year old kid in Germany was killed after being checked. These kids today are bigger, faster and more prone to not be disciplined in how they play. The games are so much faster too. This is after all, just a game. So, kids do die, even with protective gear.
I think we need to slow things down a bit. I played hard and could be nasty if the situation called for it but I prided myself on never taking a cheap shot-ever. That's not to say I didn't scrap or mix it up.
Many of the kids I played with were the same way.
I wanted to play like Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux and many others I saw in televised reruns. It never happened and I didn't have their considerable talent but It made me want to play a clean game. I don't regret it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ET2SN
Its the only game I know where you want to be drunk before you walk on the field.  |
I never thought about it but that may have helped. Shades of the movie Slapshot.