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Violence in sport nothing new
By
BEN VOLIN
Cox News Service
Friday, October 20, 2006 WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. ? Luke Witte knows what it's like to be in the middle of a pack of brawling athletes.
In 1972, Witte was involved in one of the most notorious incidents in sports history. A dominant center for Ohio State, he was punched in the head, kneed in the groin and stomped on by other players late in a tense regular-season basketball game against Minnesota. Witte's injuries derailed his promising career and the attack raised questions about the possibility of criminal charges.
"I got a lot of encouragement to go ahead and file a lawsuit," Witte said Wednesday. "The police were never involved, but it seems to me a lot of attorneys were."
Witte is well aware of the latest melee in the sports world ? Saturday night's fight involving more than 100 University of Miami and Florida International University football players during a game at the Orange Bowl. Players were swinging helmets and stomping on others until police helped stop the fight.
Witte said he never considered pursuing charges in his attack, but he's not so sure that those who participate in violent outbreaks during sporting events, such as the one last week, shouldn't end up in a courtroom.
"Maybe it's a wake-up call," said Witte, who is a counselor and pastor in Charlotte, N.C. "Why would (fighting) even be a reaction on the field like this?"
Athletes rarely face criminal charges for their actions during games. But as recently as three weeks ago, a malicious on-field attack nearly resulted in a criminal investigation.
During a blowout loss to the Dallas Cowboys, Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth sought out Dallas' Andre Gurode in a pileup and stomped on the center's helmet-less head, opening a gash that required 30 stitches. Metro Nashville Police offered to help Gurode pursue assault charges.
"We reached out to them," Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said this week. "We sent word that if Mr. Gurode wanted to engage with our officers in making a criminal complaint, we were ready and willing to assist him."
But Gurode decided not to pursue charges against Haynesworth, who was suspended five games by the NFL.
"The police department and the (district attorney's) office want and need the affirmative cooperation of a victim that he or she is willing to see the prosecution through," Aaron said. "In this situation, word was sent to us through Mr. Gurode's agent that he did not desire to engage in the criminal prosecution process."
The possibility of athletes facing criminal charges has been raised again in the aftermath of the FIU-Miami brawl. In this case, no player or school official has approached police, said Ed Griffith, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade state attorney's office.
According to several legal experts, criminal charges might become a more likely consequence if outlandish violence continues on the playing fields.
"I don't see why criminal activity is any less a criminal activity because it takes place in a sporting event," ESPN legal analyst Roger Cossack said. "If this had taken place on the street, we wouldn't even be having this discussion."
Rick Bascuas, who teaches sports law and criminal procedure at the University of Miami School of Law, doesn't believe Saturday's brawl warrants criminal charges because no one was seriously injured. But, he said, the instance of athletes facing charges "will happen one day."
"What you're going to need is a case where there's a really serious injury, where something comes up that was clearly outside the bounds of the customs of the game," Bascuas said.
That would describe Witte's incident nearly 35 years ago. Ohio State led Minnesota 50-44 with 36 seconds left when Witte was fouled hard while driving for a layup. Minnesota's Corky Taylor then punched Witte in the head and kneed him in the groin. The 7-footer fell to the floor and several Minnesota players stomped on his neck and head.
"Emotions were pretty high," Witte said. "I got 29 stitches on my face and a scratched cornea and I now have to wear contacts and glasses."
Despite the blow to his career and painful memories, Witte ended up getting to know the Minnesota players who attacked him.
"I am a pastor, and I think I had a background that gave me a nature to forgive," he said. "Two of those guys have become very close friends, and I have been to Minneapolis and eaten at their dinner table and been with their family."
Not as forgiving are legal systems that have prosecuted athletes for violence during games, and hockey has been a prime example of the threat of criminal charges.
In 1988, Dino Ciccarelli of the Minnesota North Stars spent two hours in a Toronto jail after hitting an opponent in the head with his stick. In 2000, Los Angeles Kings star Marty McSorley was found guilty in a Canadian court and placed on 18 months probation for nailing Vancouver's Donald Brashear in the head with a two-handed swing of his stick.
Two years ago, then-Vancouver Canucks forward Todd Bertuzzi made national headlines and broadcasts by punching Colorado's Steve Moore from behind, driving Moore to the ice and breaking two of his vertebrae. Bertuzzi, who now plays for the Florida Panthers, was given one year of probation and sentenced to 80 hours of community service. Moore has been unable to resume his career.
"You have to send a strong message that just because you're participating in a sporting event, it doesn't make you immune to the general laws and expectations of society," said Peter Roby, director for the Center for the Study of Sport in Society in Boston.
On the college level, the FIU-UM brawl has resulted in coaches and administrators acknowledging the possibility of law enforcement's involvement in future incidents.
"I think that question has been asked a lot this week and it's something we've talked to our team about on a weekly basis," Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen said. "But sometimes even talking doesn't help. Emotions get involved."
Kermit Washington, another infamous name in sports violence history, said he wishes his actions had resulted in a criminal trial.
During a brawl between Washington's Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers in 1977, Washington delivered a blindside punch to the face of Lakers star Rudy Tomjanovich. The blow caused a concussion and fractured Tomjanovich's skull and several bones in his face.
Washington was fined $10,000 and suspended for 60 days. Worse to him, he was immediately branded an out-of-control villain and the personification of everything that was wrong with the thuggish NBA. Reached Wednesday, Washington maintained that he was acting in self-defense and that not only did no one want to hear his side of the story but his incident pre-dated a world of 24-hour media outlets that could allow him to air his views.
"Maybe a trial would've been good for my sake," said Washington, now a player representative for the NBA Players Association. "It probably would've done something positive for me. If there was a trial, you would've had witnesses and people could've spoken their side of the story."
Washington saw video of the Orange Bowl brawl and he admits that few athletes can escape consequences when the cameras are rolling.
"Unfortunately for those players, the film is going to tell their story," he said.
Michael Edmondson, a spokesman for the state attorney's office in Palm Beach County, said his office has investigated several assault cases between adults at youth sporting events in the county, but never at a college or professional event. In light of the Miami brawl, the Haynesworth incident and the hockey assaults, however, law enforcement could step up its involvement in the future.
"We may well be moving toward that in the U.S.," Edmondson said. "I hope not."
