STOP PICKING ON HOCKEY.(hockey violence)

Leek past the arguments about the level of violence. The players of fastest game', deserve your attention.

When it comes to gaining attention in the sports world, hockey always is getting the short end of the Sher-Wood.

Many sports fans who would rather watch the Super Bowl with a bunch of beer-swilling buddies than be present at the birth of their first child often recite that fired old saw about hockey being more violent than any other sport.

But is it true? Hockey people say the sport isn't violent, and those who disagree with them should be beaten soundly by Stu Grimson.

"I never thought it was violent," says Bill Barber, coach of the Flyers and a member of hockey's notorious Broad Street Bullies of the 1970s. "We've had some incidents we're not proud of, but you don't have guys who are out there to really injure somebody. People who call it violent don't know the game very well. If you watch football, what do you call that?"

Football players take pride in violence on the field. When they're not impersonating bulls in china shops (how can a 300pound man running at full tilt not be trying to injure an opponent?), they're grabbing facemasks and trying to make foes do impressions of Linda Blair in The Exorcist. And we won't even mention the guys who hit with the helmet or go for the knees.

"By the very nature of the games, they have to be (violent)," says Fred Fleming, the Broncos' director of special services and a former high school hockey player. But Fleming draws the distinction between intent and consequence when he compares football and hockey.