ABSTRACT
Sports are deliberately contrived for producing exciting and entertaining contests. In this chapter, the author draws on his own observations of games, largely from television, and from interviewing experienced fans of particular kinds of sports. He suggests that a number of variables are critical to the understanding of player violence, including the degree to which violence is sanctioned within the game. The author also draws on a news clipping file of incidents of sports violence over the years 1997–2004, and on photographs of those incidents. The three kinds of emotional dynamics —collective effervescence in build-ups of dramatic tension in the audience; the degree of emotional resonance within a team; emotional energy (EE) contests between opponents —make up the background for outbursts of sports violence. One type of player fight arises from frustration. Such frustration fights are usually ineffective as violence, and never seem to turn the momentum around.
