Ice Hockey’s Manly Supremacy

The roots of ice hockey trace back 4,000 years ago to Egyptians and Ethiopians in 1,000BC, eventually reaching its modern form in mid-18th century England. The sport’s goal is to use both skill/technique and brute force, while wearing weapon’s on one’s feet, to score a tiny, rock hard puck into the opposing team’s net. The reasons that I deem hockey as the world’s manliest sport are manifold. First, unlike football, the game rarely stops moving, which requires an extreme degree of aerobic tenacity and stamina. On the same note, hockey seasons boast multiple games a week rather than a once-a-week game, which gives players a much shorter time to recover from game to game. Second, fighting is built into the sport and is promoted. In fact, often a penalty is often decided by whether or not there is blood involved. Even the penalty names – spearing, slashing, charging, fighting, roughing, etc. – all have manly undertones. Third, the amount of physical and mental toughness required and glorified in hockey is absolutely absurd. For instance, in 2013, the Bruins’ Gregory Campbell literally broke his leg after absorbing a slap shot from an opposing player. Rather than staying down on the ice so trainers could treat him, he continued playing for several more minutes to avoid stopping play. I cannot think of any other sport in which players demonstrate the same fortitude. Therefore, if we are purely basing this post on what constitutes the manliest sport, hockey wins with soaring colors.