March 27, 2026
I see a clear rhyming of history as I observe all the machinations occurring in professional sports:
It’s pretty clear, the mimic, but what it all means takes some explanation.
The gladiatorial games occupied a complex position in Roman society, far beyond entertainment. These spectacles were woven into the fabric of Roman political, social, and religious life, reflecting the values and anxieties of an empire.
At their core, the games served as an affirmation of Roman power. The arena presented a controlled environment where chaos was tamed—wild beasts subdued, foreign captives defeated, and criminals executed.
This ritualized violence reassured Romans of their civilization’s supremacy over barbarism. We don’t kill people in the arena, but the idea of ritualized violence is alive and well.
Politically, the games functioned as a tool of social control and patronage. Wealthy elites and emperors sponsored elaborate spectacles to curry favor with the masses, demonstrating their generosity. The phrase “bread and circuses” captured this cynical calculation—keep the population fed and entertained, and they would remain politically docile.
We all understand the “bread” rhyme today as Government becomes increasingly willing to fund all kinds of social largesse. But it is in the UFC proposed fight at the White House, that the “circuses” part becomes obvious:
Oh, just please don’t…
The games created a bond between patron and public, transforming mob energy into orchestrated enthusiasm. Emperors understood that popularity in the arena often translated to political security. Hunh.
The best fighters became celebrities, their skill and bravery earning respect. In a similar vein I see an increasing movement from the sports page to the entertainment page…sports icon as celebrity:
The gladiatorial games thus represented far more than bloodsport. They were political theater, religious ceremony, moral instruction, and social glue that both reflected and reinforced the empire’s values, hierarchies, and understanding of its place in the world.
But you would be left with the media-soaked impression that things are getting worse, that there is more brawling in sports that really don’t have that as central to the offering:
On court brawl breaks out among NBA players in Minnesota
NASCAR Stars Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski in Massive Post-Race Brawl
12 Players and Coaches draw Suspensions after Mariners/Angels Brawl
One has to be a bit careful here, not to overstate. Brawling has been a part of sports forever. Emotions ramp, and whether you believe another driver has driven you into the wall at Daytona, or you saw one brush-back pitch too many, that has been around for a long time. So, you see all of that and it feels as though it’s getting worse. But that is not the case.
Hockey has the clearest, most quantified trend. Fights per game in the NHL decreased from a peak of 0.64 in 2002 to a low of 0.18 in 2020. To put the recent decade in context, in the 2018-19 season, just 15% of regular-season games had a fight — compared to 41% in 2008-09. Fights currently occur in roughly one of every 5.5 NHL games, down from a peak in 1987 of more than one fight per game.
The NBA took action after the infamous 2004 “Malice at the Palace” (Pacers vs. Pistons), which still stands as the benchmark for how bad things can get. Since then, the NBA imposes an automatic one-game suspension on any player who leaves the bench to participate in a brawl, and the league levies heavy fines on top of that. The result: full-scale NBA bench brawls have become extremely rare. Isolated shoving or ejectable incidents still occur — there was a notable on-court brawl as recently as 2024-25 — but the mass pile-ons of the 1990s are extinct.
The NFL has always been the most heavily padded sport, which paradoxically makes pure fistfights harder. Post-play skirmishes and shoving matches are common, but full brawls are rare and result in ejections and significant suspensions. What is less clear is whether the in-stadium fan brawl problem has gotten better or worse, as social media has made these incidents far more visible even if the underlying frequency hasn’t changed dramatically.
Conclusion: The past decade has seen a clear, deliberate league-driven suppression of player brawls, especially in the NHL and NBA. The forces behind it…concussion science, player safety culture, stiff financial and career penalties, and the professionalization of rosters away from “enforcer” roles appear to be here to stay (I hope so).
Baseball remains the one major sport where bench-clearing is structurally built in, but even there severity has moderated. The era of truly epic, multi-player brawls like the 1984 Padres-Braves or the 1997 Avalanche-Red Wings “Bloody Wednesday” is very much behind us.
We love our violent sports. It is not my opinion; all you have to do is look at ticket sales. The Green Bay Packers (my wife’s fav team) season tickets are sold out essentially forever. The wait list exceeds the number of seats in the stadium.
The Toronto Maple Leafs, despite what even most Canadians would consider dismal play, are sold out for decades.
I played ice hockey until age 37 when an injury brought home to me in vivid color that not only was I too old to be screwing around like that, but at some point, my bell would be rung, and I’d have something like tinnitus forever. I was just a plug player in an aging and overweight men’s league, so the hits were not epic and fighting was pretty much non-existent. But I can assure you that you wear so much padding that unless you take off your helmet, blows will kind of thud thud thud without effect.
Thus, you learn that to be a real fan, it is the artistry of the game that ultimately excites…why the US/Canada Olympic final games (women and men) were so exhilarating to watch.
Yup, there’s hope for us. We don’t appear to be sinking onto the floor of the Colosseum, and the fact that media coverage may make us feel that way is yet another reminder of the State of the Union today. Media is the gift that just keeps on giving.
No, I am not going to watch the UFC thing, and I sincerely hope some good taste gets involved and cancels the whole idea.
Thoughts, questions, or reflections? I’d love to hear them. You can reach me anytime at anthony@workingprofit.com
