Last week I had the opportunity to interview former NHL Tough Guy, Tiger Williams. He had some strong statements for those who want fighting out of the game. Here's part of the interview:


JR: What are your thoughts on people discussing taking fighting out of the game?


Tiger: "No matter what you say you'll have both sides of the ledger, but I think there should be a rule if you don't have really, really good balance you shouldn't be allowed to fight. Yes, the initial part of it was a fight but he got hurt by losing his own balance. Where are you gonna stop every time someone gets hurt you gonna put another rule in, gonna change another rule. Here's a problem Hockey's got, you got to many liberal thinking people watching the game. You gotta get rid of them. Name the last time they every changed a rule in baseball, or in NFL or the NBA. Name the last time. Why does everybody want to change the rules in hockey? If you can't handle someone getting knocked out when someone falls down, don't watch it. Go watch Tiddlywinks, it might be your sport. No more discussion on this. It makes no sense, it is what it is. The other thing about fighting, no one gets hurt in fighting very often, but once in a while it happens."


JR: What do you say to Shero, Rutherford and Yzerman about having harsher punishments for Fighting?

Tiger: "So you want to have that bonehead rule, if that rule was around when Yzerman played then I might as well go and pick a fight with him in the first minute and he's either gonna take 28 in the head or fight back. If he fights back he's kicked out of the game. How does that work, what does that do? The NHL has already screwed up the game. The reason why concussions are up is because some idiot decided to take out the red line, are they gonna make another rule and take out hitting? We're in a contact sport. Objects fly around 100 mile per hour, 200 pound men are flying around 40-50 kilometers an hour. People are gonna get hurt, that's why it's a Pro sport. It's not for amateurs. That's why it says before the game, Don't try this at home. Leave the freakin game alone, if you don't like it Don't watch it!"

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