WHEN RAGING TESTOSTERONE BLURS THE LINE BETWEEN LICIT AND ILLICIT AGGRESSION (11/24/04)

How could one not concur with condemning the violence at recent collegiate and professional sporting events? It’s well to remember that they are merely current examples of a deplorable longstanding tradition of game-time beat-em-ups, many involving fans in the stands.

Assessing appropriate sanctions is crucial to treating the symptoms of each incident. If, however, the overarching concern left by such episodes is the influence that boorish, violent role models have on our children, the real scrutiny has yet to begin.

Please start by being realistic: The testosterone level on any playing field could float the Titanic. Moreover, sports like football and basketball are by their very nature aggressor-defender games of conquest. They are, or should be, highly disciplined, symbolic warfare. Nothing wrong with that. That's precisely why they’re so exciting.

Let's admit, then, that it’s incredibly hard in the heat of battle to instinctively discern between legitimate warfare and illicit violence, especially when provoked. How does an aggressive forward facilely flip the switch on and off mid-layup?

Thus, all the more reason that raw killer instinct must be transformed by coaches - with the full support of their bosses and popular culture - into a cadre of highly disciplined players whose physical strength becomes completely subservient to mental clarity and an internalized sense of right and wrong, particularly when temptation is the greatest. The lessons must be intense, persistent, attitude-transforming to the point that they become instinctive, not just a "good sportsmanship" pep talk.

That's what collegiate and pro sports should offer kids about their role models: the picture of a disciplined athlete who is groomed to excel as much by self-control as by physical strength, who knows the difference between a game well played and gratuitous violence. Let the kids also know that the same discipline and self-control that make for athletic greatness on the field make for basic decency once the whistle has been blown.

Years ago, my dad was a drill instructor preparing men to go off to war. His most cautionary words, he told me, were, "Work as hard as you can with the men who are scared, but keep your eyes most closely on the guys who are trigger-happy."