We all know of the announcer that calls a game a battle, the athletes warriors, an impressive feat amazing, or a play the best they have seen.  All of these are understandable in the heat of the moment, but the most exaggerated word in sports always comes in the next day headlines.  A word used to get a click on an article or video, a cheap ploy to drive up “ratings”, a word I fell victim to this morning.  That word…brawl. 

Yesterday I spent a few hours in the car, a few hours packing and unpacking, and a few hours enjoying Christmas day with the family.  There was basketball off and on the TV/radio throughout the day, so it was very possible I missed an important play or moment, so I wasn’t surprised when I saw a headline about the Celtics game yesterday that I had missed.  I go to ESPN this morning and see a video referencing a brawl in the Celtics game.  They were playing the Nets and had “brawled” a couple weeks ago, so I figure maybe the tensions actually boiled over into a brawl. 

I watch the video in amazement.  Garnett gets his jersey held through a play, pulls the hand off his jersey, referees and teammates separate the two players after sharing a few choice words, and that now constitutes a brawl? 

I will admit it, baseball is the worst offender.  Nobody even needs to charge the mound, the benches just need to slowly spill onto the field and it is called a bench clearing brawl.  Please sports headline writers, stop dropping fake blood in the water, entice us with the real thing.  If you are gonna say brawl, have it be Artest taking out a fan, Krueter decking a guy in the second row, Chan Ho Park doing his best Mortal Kombat flying side kick, or Nolan Ryan pummeling Robin Ventura.  A little hug and a few words are not a brawl, please stop fooling yourselves.