The PLL has fights, and the PLL likes fights.
I suppose we should have seen this coming. Each of the first few weekends of the PLL featured at least a handful of scuffles, shoving, and post-whistle physicality. It usually came in defense of a goalie who’d been contacted, which is what you’d expect. But this week things escalated. We had punches thrown, game misconducts, and went well beyond chirps and shoves into a fight.
Before I really get started here, let’s get a few things out of the way. I have no problem with pulling a member of the opposing team off your goalie. I have no problem with these players mixing it up a bit; it’s a physical game with high energy competitors and it’s going to happen. Hell, if it’s in the rule book as something that’s permissible (apparently it is) then I have no problem with fighting, period. But let’s consider a few things about how the fighting in the PLL was handled this past weekend.
Just from a pace of play standpoint, it was awful. From the moment the fight started to the moment play resumed, over 10 minutes went by in real time. In a sport that’s all about upping the pace, quick restarts, nonstop action, and new rules to make things faster, that can’t happen. If fighting is allowed, be prepared for it to happen so that when it does, you can hand out the penalties, let the coaches know what the deal is, and get the game started again. Nothing takes the air of out of the game like a 10 minute stoppage while refs huddle together to sort something out. Especially on a bad weather day. Fans and players alike standing around in the rain for 10 minutes waiting for the game to restart shouldn’t happen.
Personally, I think throwing a punch should lead to an ejection. I can’t think of a time in field lacrosse at any level when throwing a punch didn’t end your day and likely earn you a suspension as well. If the PLL has decided to be closer to the NLL and NHL than maybe we realized, so be it, but that’s personally not something I’m a fan of. It’s never been part of field lacrosse before, and I wasn’t aware that there was any kind of demand for it.
The fight became the story of the game, and that sucks. The PLL post game graphic on social media that posted the final score, which was yet another exciting OT game that Chaos won, featured an image of…..a punch. Is that really what this league is going to hang it’s hat on? There were more than a fair share of incredible plays, including an OVERTIME GAME WINNER, and the image we want to put out there with the final score is of a fight in the 3rd quarter. It was one of the more shared clips, as in the PLL was retweeting and sharing just about everyone who posted it, of the weekend. I love that the PLL has been able to bring lacrosse into the living rooms of boatloads of fans who otherwise might not have been able to watch it, likely making new fans in the process. But is fighting really going to be the way they try do it? The product on the field is plenty exciting, and my hope was always that it just wasn’t seen by enough people before, but it is now. Can’t we give the game a chance to hook people, rather than fights?
The last part of this has to do with the history of the game. We see promos and segments all the time around lacrosse, and broadcasters mention it as well. Lacrosse is a gift from the creator…..it’s the medicine game….it’s a healing game. Pro lacrosse, and the PLL, has celebrated the history of the game and it’s Native American roots. I’m not sure quite sure how fighting, and celebrating it, fits in with that. Maybe this is a reach, I don’t know, but it doesn’t sit all that well with me from the history point of view either. This take feels a little get-off-my-lawn, but it shouldn’t be dismissed. If you’re going to put out videos praising the creator’s game and the medicine game, you need to really consider the way you approach fighting in games and the glorification of it.
I understand that the players involved have nothing but respect for one another, and made it perfectly clear in the post game. Coaches as well. And again, if the PLL wants to allow fighting, be my guest. I’m not a huge fan of it but I can see the case to be made. But decisions need to be made about just how much glorification and exposure the fighting needs. If the headline for every post game story has to do with the fight that happened in the game, and the league decides it’s how it wants to lead stories about the game as well instead of with the actual lacrosse that got played, it’s going to be tough for me to consider this pro lacrosse and not pro wrestling.
