Patrice Cormier Elbow

[Triumph]

No, hockey players consent to clean hits and to a range of infractions as well. Football players consent to tackles, catchers to contact at the plate, and boxers to punches to the face.

Is the concept of consent really that difficult?

yes, it is, fellow wall - i think that's what you're not understanding. i don't think daneyko's examples are good, but how about the jack tatum hit on darryl stingley, for example? the issue of consent is very difficult to parse in sports, and you keep ducking the erik cole thing. how about spending 3 seconds on youtube finding it?

did cole consent to this? the point is that the line is extremely difficult to draw - tam had the puck, he could have been hit legally by cormier. i don't think malice can at all be proved - i've heard nothing about a previous incident with tam or anything, the play happened in overtime, it's nearly impossible to point to anything circumstantial to suggest that cormier did this intentionally.

Edited January 27, 2010 by Triumph

[jsonnabend]

yes, it is, fellow wall - i think that's what you're not understanding. i don't think daneyko's examples are good, but how about the jack tatum hit on darryl stingley, for example? the issue of consent is very difficult to parse in sports, and you keep ducking the erik cole thing. how about spending 3 seconds on youtube finding it?

did cole consent to this? the point is that the line is extremely difficult to draw - tam had the puck, he could have been hit legally by cormier. i don't think malice can at all be proved - i've heard nothing about a previous incident with tam or anything, the play happened in overtime, it's nearly impossible to point to anything circumstantial to suggest that cormier did this intentionally.

Thank you. I am brick.

The point is, law is all about line drawing, and juries make calls on those lines all the time. Like the difference between various flavors of manslaughter, for instance.

And drawing attention to other close cases (e.g., the Erik Cole hit) doesn't address the question. Whether I say the Cole hit was criminal or not doesn't affect this elbow, does it?

Oh, and your quoted post above states a different position than before. Now you're arguing the intent. Well, that I can't argue. It's a question of fact. I believe the video shows a hit with intent to injure behind it. Perhaps you think differently. Throw us in a room with ten other people and instructions on the law and we have a jury. Just don't say that no hit in sports can violate the law.

- Jeff