John Dybvig: Please calm down, these things happen in sport

Opinion

Excuse me, but am I the only sane person in the country when it comes to my reaction over a brief fight between the Auckland Grammar and Kelston Boys' High rugby teams?

It's hard to believe the political juggernaut this small incident has become in the media. What with the All Blacks' coach passing comment and, of all things, Prime Minister John Key announcing his judgment to the nation about a high school skirmish.

Puh-leaseeeee calm down folks, it happens, it's happened before and guess what? It's definitely going to happen again.

Am I saying it's all right for high school athletes to fight? Of course not. But I am saying that it's not only all right, but it's your duty to stand up and defend yourself in any situation, including a high school sporting contest. The ones who should be disciplined are the kids and adults who joined in from the sidelines who escalated the fight.

There's a huge difference between sticking up for yourself on the field of play and rushing in from the outside of the situation, which is why professional sports teams in the United States have automatic suspensions for players who join eruptions on the field of play from the bench.

Of course the kids need to be scolded and told in no uncertain terms that fighting isn't condoned, but this message should be given by the coaches and the principals of each school in private, not played out in the media who are overblowing the impulses of youngsters into something sinister when it clearly is not the case.

News is what you want to make it and the media here did a masterful job of turning what happens on sports fields right around the world into what it wasn't, namely a major catastrophe.

This brawl was a blip on the radar screen of competitive sports - whenever competitors meet the likelihood of tempers flaring is always on, the two go hand-in-hand and every once in a while they get out of hand.

I've been involved in competitive sports both as a player and as a coach most of my life and have been involved in a couple of all-in brawls as a player. They were always brief and explosive.

And extremely rare. I wasn't mortified or ashamed or anything really. I was told it was wrong by my coach and life went on.

It totally cracks me up the way we send out young men to engage in physical battle and then expect them at all times to be in control of their emotions. That's not human, that's robotic, it just ain't gonna happen 100 per cent of the time.

Why is it that as a society we spend so much time posturing about what is acceptable behaviour after the fact when everyone is calm? These kids aren't thugs or criminals - they're highly charged kids who reacted to something in the spur-of-the-moment. End of story. But, to read the paper these past few days one could be forgiven for thinking that these fine young men are the worst of the worst.

As a coach, whenever I sent my players out on the field I always told them to play hard and to protect themselves at all times. I would do everything in my power to look after them, but when they stepped on to that field it was then up to them to look after themselves and their teammates.

That's the reality of the situation. Sometimes things can get ugly and of course we don't want to dwell on that side of life, but it would not only be stupid but irresponsible to think that everyone plays fair and nice and by the rules. We all know it just doesn't work that way in the world, or on the sports field or sometimes just standing on the street corner.

And to carry on this facade that a high school fight is somehow representative of the ills of society or the recession or any other such nonsense is so typical of the politically correct society we find ourselves enslaved in. The real culprits in this story are the finger-wagging principals who engaged in something far worse than a few thrown punches in the heat of the moment.

They immediately went into attack mode in the blame game, acting like the juveniles they're supposed to be in charge of. How pathetic is that?

They tried to justify the very thing (who threw the first punch) they were so outraged by in the first place. Americans aren't suppose to understand irony, but I find that ironic.

To use an Americanism that can quickly and succinctly get to the heart of this matter: "It is what it is." That sums up what a high school sports brawl is - nothing more and nothing less - and it should be left at that.

* John Dybvig is an Auckland actor and sports commentator.