We tune in night in and night out, as fans, to watch our favorite teams and favorite players go head to head. We watch as they give us their best and metaphorically fight to see which team will prevail. In the heat of competition however, sometimes the metaphorical becomes reality and athletes lose their cool and most of the time it is with each other. I say most of the time because there is actually a couple of times on this list where the fight spills into the audience with the fans, and deservedly so. As a passionate, sometimes borderline insane fan myself, I understand heat of the moment tendencies but I will never understand why fans think it is okay to get involved physically. As for the fights on this list, there just is no way that you can rank them. Again, it will be up to the reader to make their own decision on which one they think was the craziest sports fight. Usually, I only cover 5 sports but today, I am willing to compromise as some of the craziest fights come from other sports. Also, we are talking about non combat sports so let’s just call it a swap. Also, I will only be choosing 1 fight from each sport because there are so many to choose from, Idecided on my favorites. I am writing an article, not a book. Now, LETS GET READY TO RUMBLEEEEEEE….you get the idea already.
November 19th, 2004 -“The Malice At The Palace”
Did you really think that I wouldn’t be talking about the biggest melee in NBA history?! The fight this night was about way more than just the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers. This is about exactly why fans should never get involved or try to insert themselves in on the court/field/ice skirmishes. Let’s start at the beginning. First, Metta World Peace, then known at Ron Artest, fouls Detroit’s Ben Wallace as he drives to the hoop. Wallace completely overreacts and shoves Artest with ferocious intent. Looking back, Wallace should have had way more restraint after such a seemingly dinky foul. Nevertheless, after the shove, players from both teams squared up at mid-court and from there all hell broke loose, but it didn’t have to. Things began to settle as Artest was collecting himself and decided to lay down on the scorer’s table. Order was being restored when out of nowhere a cup full of beer came flying from the stands, landing squarely in the mid-section of Artest who was still composing himself on the scorer’s table. Right there is where my opinion lies. If that fan wasn’t such an idiot and left it all alone or even if that beer misses its target, we are not including this on the list because the fight never happens. That was not the case. Artest gets up and goes Hulk after the fan that threw the beer. After completely obliterating said fan, other fans decided they would try to be tough guys as well and start grabbing and sucker punching the Pacers players who had also entered the stands to backup Ron. Those fans also got what they had coming from Stephen Jackson, Fred Jones and Jermaine O’ Neal. They finally get the players back on the court, but fans are still flexing their beer muscles. Fans running up and almost challenging the players to hit them. The players did and it was not pretty. Every single fan who either locked eyes with a player or tried to be tough, ultimately got laid out and rightfully so. There are 3 separate occasions where this thing is over but fans want to keep going. In the end, yes it was an ugly night for the sport and after this fight the rule was implemented that no player can leave the bench during an on-court altercation and if they do they are promptly suspended. However, the blame here is not on the players. Ron Artest did what any human being would do if they were calming down after a fight and got hit with something out of nowhere, he snapped. The other players were just defending and protecting their teammate. We tend to put these athletes on such a pedestal that we forget that they are humans with emotions and react to situations just how we would. Could things have been handled better by the players? Absolutely. Heat of the moment does not work that way sometimes. Artest rarely, if ever speaks about that night but you can tell it is because he is so remorseful of his actions. That night will be remembered forever, but we need to make sure we start telling the whole story before we paint these players as the bad guys.
“The Brawl In HockeyTown” Detroit Red Wings VS Colorado Avalanche
As most of you know I am not a hockey guy, but I absolutely love the backstory and events that unfolded during this brawl. In the 1996 playoffs Colorado’s Claude Lemieux laid a hit on the Red Wings Kris Draper that could have nearly ended his career. The hit resulted in Draper breaking his jaw, cheekbone and needing reconstructive surgery. The first matchup between the two the following season resulted in the one of the biggest forms of payback I have ever seen. Seemingly at every turn a fight broke out and a Red Wing stood victorious. Darren McCarty found Lemieux and laid out a beatdown on him so bad that he had to leave the ice for the remainder of the game which honestly is something that is rare in hockey. This is the same sport that a man died on the bench, was revived, and tried coming back into the game. Back to Detroit though. Even the goalies got into it with Mike Vernon meeting Patrick Roy at center ice and again, the Red Wing stood victorious as Roy had to clean himself up quite a bit having been split open above his eye and lip. The only way hockey players know how to avenge a brutal hit on a teammate is for the entire team to destroy the other. That is what happened on this night for sure. After all in the words of Red Wings captain Brendan Shanahan, “Hockey players have long memories”. Side note: Don’t we all wish every sport would let guys beat the shit out of each other until the dust settles like in hockey? I mean it just seems like the easiest way to settle any disagreements and after all is said and done, they all shake hands and go their separate ways. I am all for that.
New York Yankees vs Baltimore Orioles-May 19th 1998
Now I know what everyone is thinking, how the hell is the Varitek-A-Rod fight not the baseball one?! Well that would be because it wasn’t really a fight as Rodriguez got his ass kicked and did no fighting back. This fight however will not be judged on any of the players tackling abilities or it would get a big fat F. This one was about quick revenge and a fight that spilled into the dugout of the visiting Orioles. Armando Benitez, a relief pitcher for Baltimore, clearly intentionally drills Tino Martinez in the middle of his back. Now, Tino is clearly pissed but it is Benitez that sets everything off. Instead of taking his prompt ejection like a man, Benitez instead turns toward the Yankee dugout as Yankees are coming to defend their brother and challenges them to come after them. He would come to regret that. First off, Daryl Strawberry is seeing red and goes after Benitez on a mission. He is met with restraint by fellow and opposing personnel but Graeme Lloyd came in from the bullpen swinging like a mad man at Armando. Graeme lands no shots because his form is absolutely awful but it gave Strawberry the chance to strike. Strawberry punches and grabs Benitez as they both spill into the Orioles dugout throwing bombs and showing no mercy. It got so bad that both managers were climbing on top of their players in the dugout trying to restore order. Strawberry had a fat lip but Benitez definitely took the bigger shots and when the dust settled it was hard not to declare New York the victor. The biggest disappointment is that Tino was not able or I should say allowed to get any shots in as he was being held back by multiple players. In the end, the Yankees got the last laugh baseball wise as they went on to win multiple championships and Baltimore still has not.
Andre Johnson vs Cortland Finnegan
Honestly this the best and smartest NFL fight I have ever seen. Why? Because these 2 actually took their helmets off and duked it out. Well, I should say that andre Johnson did, Finnegan just got his ass kicked. The two had been jawing at each other and shoving pretty much the entire game. It all came to a head as time was winding down in the 4th quarter. They lock up again and Finnegan gets ahold of Johnson’s helmet and tosses it down the field but in doing so, left himself very vulnerable to what happens next. Now, Finnegan had lost his helmet already and his balance as he fell to the ground. Johnson gets around his back like something out of UFC and starts landing absolute bombs on the side of his opponents head. Finnegan would later say that Johnson hit like a b***h but we all saw as clear as day that this man got his ass whooped on live tv. Do I blame Johnson? Absolutely not. I couldn’t stand Cortland Finnegan. He was always trying to bait dudes to fight every week with not just talk because guys can handle that but the after the whistle late hits and shoves. He finally got what he deserved and in an unexpected twist, calmed right down after that for the remainder of his career. Probably got shut down in his trash talk with a response like “Dude, You want me to Andre Johnson you again?!”.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Nolan Ryan vs Robin Ventura
Aqib Talib vs Michael Crabtree
Bruins demolish Rangers Fans
Varitek Destroys Arod
To The Rack With Mac 