1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Is there Any Place for Fighting in Sports?: December 22nd, 11:25am

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

Is there Any Place for Fighting in Sports?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Back to one-on-one with D.P. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation on 93-7, the ticket. We are a society of call and response. Sometimes the echo change chamber is positive, sometimes it is not. We get into habits. we will copy and mimic what we see in others. Or we set standards to kind of dictate how this is going to go. How it should it go?

How should it look? A couple of instances this weekend highlight other instances and other things that are in play. There was a game this weekend at Georgetown where Coach Cool. Cooley had an engagement and it created a situation. So the statement from Georgetown is we met with Coach Cooley today, discussed the incident which occurred after the last night's game against Xavier, expressed that his conduct did not align with standards we expect from our coaches, nor does it reflect the values of the university.

As a result, Cooley would be suspended for the next game versus Coppin State. Jeff Battle will coach the team. Cooley goes on. He himself says, I'm deeply sorry for my actions during the last night's game and sincerely apologize to the family of the people involved whom I've known for years in regards my own family. My conduct was unacceptable and does not represent who I am or the leader I strive to be. I want to apologize to Georgetown Community Team's fans in league and my family. I take full responsibility for my actions and their consequences.

I will learn from its experience to ensure that it never happened again. If we go a step further, D.K. Metcaps shows the fan during a ballgame in Detroit, and it becomes issue. And there are a couple of things in play, as far as this is concerned. The CBS broadcast showed Metcalf talking to the fan was who's in a blue wig and hanging over the first row railing. He came over because the fan was in the stands, was holding a four Pittsburgh. jersey. He went over and the fan said something to him. Obviously, Medcap did not like what he said, and you saw the swipe there. No Steelers came over to him and mentioned anything. In an angle of the incident on Instagram, Matt Cap walked up the fan, grabbed him by his shirt collar to pull him

closer to forcibly shoved him back. The fan threw his hands up after Metcalf made contact when he appeared to have a yellow jersey in his hand. Um, Medcalf exited the locker room after without taking questions from reporters. Now, here's the simplicity behind all of this. And this is, this is, Bach, your, your, your son knows the rules of the house. And he has a plan and rules for engagement if you are not there, right? If you're not in front of him, don't touch this, don't stand on that, no hitting, no cursing, there are things. You go over the list.

Yeah. And you go over the list so that this sort of thing doesn't happen, right? You don't want to wait until your child burns their hands on a fire to tell them that something is hot and explain to them the problem with touching, putting your hand on hot things. So you set rules for that. You will tell them, hey, be safe. You will tell them to put a helmet on if you're riding a bike or if you're going to do a thing where danger is lurking. You give them rules for engagement.

You allow them to make certain meals because they're safe, they're deemed safe, and put a ban on others and say, listen, don't go there. You would probably imagine that, you know, we don't want you standing on the kitchen sink. We don't want you up in the upper shelves. If it's up there, it's not for you. Those, you know, no flips off the bed.

No Jeff Hardee's, none of that. We don't need you. We do that. As educators, we set rules for the classroom. As bosses, we set rules and standard for safety measures. Here, Bach, we have a full protocol for how to lock down this building when we leave and how to open it. And the checks and balances are when we set it up.

You have rules that when you, you walk into the studio, you know there's some things I need to check, right? And you will check in with the person who was here before you. Is everything working? Is everything in order? In this thing that social media has given far too many people access and voice, because they don't have that training. They're not considerate of the people in the stands. They're not consider the players because they feel like they know them. They feel like I can say whatever I want otherwise. Now, it's responsible and it's up to the Steelers and Georgetown to make sure that their

people stay within the lines that they've drawn. And what I can tell you is 100% that Mike Tomlin and the Steelers have never had a day where they practice walking over to a fan and grabbing him by the shirt. I guarantee it. They don't have a day where,

hey, this is how we approach fans and this is how we assault them. This is where we put hands on fans. And you could ask, as a coach, what day, walk me through it, what day did we go over leaving, Putting down your focus for the game, the actual job, your opponent is across the field.

It's never behind you. It's never behind you. And you know that they don't have the same rules that you do. So don't engage. Don't engage. That's the rule. Do not engage. We didn't practice it.

Don't engage. If you don't know how. what the rules are, don't engage. And if a fan is giving you the verbal business, go through it. Now, you can say, let's have the conversation that if a fan engages you in a negative way,

keep moving. Do not stop and engage. Like, that would be the rule. Don't engage. That was the rule for every team that I've ever coached. Not only can you not hear, the fans, you never engage the fans. You never engage the fans.

If we didn't practice it, you don't do it. And we practice everything from walking from the bus into the stadium, into the arena, and coming in and out of the lot, we practice all of that, Bob. We practice all of it. How to line up, what the order is, who's going to lead us out the tunnel? Who's the last one?

How do we get into our warm-ups? How do we? All of it. And at no point, I guarantee you there's never been a thing where we had practice spitting on the opponent. I've never been to a practice where we practice throwing hands on a football field or a basketball court or baseball field. Never once.

Never once. and if it's not if i didn't teach it to you we don't do it we don't do it and we've gotten so calloused about it right and the apologies listen apologize and learn use it as a as a teaching point to all the other coaches in the athletic department cool here's what we're going to say and here's what we're not going to do for the Steelers

Mike Tomlin listen you understood you understood the method and the mission you understood it you knew who D.K. Matt Cath was and the rules in play

is simple it's simple to say here's how we carry ourselves and explaining why Because now, in a playoff drive, in a meaningful day on one of the bigger days of this Steelers football season, you're dealing with this instead of the success in the game. And Georgetown basketball was also a pretty good start for their season. And now you've got to deal with this, and now you're going to have a game without a coach.

Well, think about that. How do you set that discipline as a coach when you have to sit out because, you lost discipline. How do you look your players in the face and say, listen, you've got to be honorable, you've got to be dignified, you've got to be classic. How do you say that now?

So through all of this, one, the leagues and these conferences will get to a point where they will say there are certain things they're just simply never allowed and are banishable. I don't know what other people's rule for a bit, but if one of my players spit on somebody, that would be their last game. That would be their last game. If one of my players threw a punch, you can't play.

You're out of control. You can't play. If you want to be treated like an adult, then you have to act as an adult. And spitting on somebody is a very unadult thing to do. And, yeah, there's forgiveness for all things. I get that. You're forgiven as a person. But as a player, Bach, what are the, in your mind, what is the thing where you say you just simply can't,

you can't do that thing and be a part of my team? Is there anything that comes up? And there is no right or wrong answer. Let's be, let me be clear with that. I mean, I would, I would stop, sort of maybe D.K. Medcalf, but I mean, once you get into like the, like the brawls in Detroit, once you get into the stands, that sort of stuff. I mean, I think that's probably a cutoff point for me.

Yeah, I mean, fighting in sports, like, I don't, I don't like it in hockey. Let me just, let me just say that. Because you can't say it's okay in hockey because that says it's okay in sports and then say it's not okay in basketball. is that a fair thing i mean to a degree it's kind of built into the hockey no it's not it's not i mean it's not it's not it's not it's organized fight it's not an allow brawl it's two guys no it's not do you get points for it there's a set like do you get more discipline for it you don't get points for it do you get points for blocking or or tackling either you you here's as a part

of it to tell me that you can't play how many fights the way and greets do you get into in his career. You've never seen one. You've never seen one where Wayne Gretzky, the greatest, the goat, dropped his gloves and said, you know what, I need to throw hands. Right. I don't, to make excuses for it, NASCAR has the same discussion of why it's okay when they get all hyped up when there's a crash and somebody, you know, the drivers get out of the car and throw helmets in each other

and then want to throw hands. If it's okay for this, it's okay for that. It's not circumstantial. Well, I wouldn't say that between every sport's the same. I absolutely would. Is it okay? So we're good with Husker gymnasts just deciding to throw hands. No.

Again, I think it's built into hockey. I'd like to have somebody that, you know, like the stars. At wrestling. At wrestling. At wrestling. Husker wrestling. Okay, to throw hands? just to punch people in the jaw

because things didn't go your way? No, no. Right? Or you think it'll gain you some advantage by, hey, if I punch this dude in the jaw, look, he'll be a little dizzy and I can get this thing done. I don't like the way this is going.

I'm not saying it's okay and tackle football. I'm saying, or basketball. I'm saying fighting, throwing, but actual fist to cups. It's not, we're talking about, you're talking about UFC? See? Because that's why it's fighting.

It's in the title. But any other sport, I think you're just doing simple. Simple. And 1184, I'm perfectly fine with, with, so I'll read the text, so people get this thing. You're saying it's okay to tackle and basketball. When did I say it was okay to tackle them back? But did I say that? No.

Okay. I think he says, D.P, different sports have different rules. I know. I know. But I'm asking, Bach, if your son gets into a fight,

are you okay with it? Is it preferred? Definitely not preferred. At some point, you do have to stick up for yourself. Why is it not preferred? Well, you don't want to teach any violence.

I'm just asking, look, I just want to make sense. And here's my thing, 1184. You have every listener has the right to change the station. Please do. And by the way, right, because I didn't say any of that.

I would say this as well, is if you disagree with somebody in the radio, that usually draws me in personally. That gets me more interested to listen to myself. We're having a conversation and you're offended by my opinion. Because my opinion wants to make people change the station. Okay, that's why there's a radio dial and you're able to, you control it. We're having a conversation.

And I'm asking a bit. I'm asking a question. You know, it's simple. The question was, is the same about a pitcher throwing at a batter? I don't think. So in every sport, it is control your weapons. So even in ultimate fighting, they tell you to control your weapons. Control what you do.

And if you tell me that as a professional, as one of the 1% of human beings who throw a baseball and have control over that baseball, that you choose to throw a baseball at the head of a human being, Why? Because you don't like them? Is your job to get them out? Isn't that? I didn't know it was the job of the pitcher

to put people on base or to injure people. And you say, well, we're not trying to injure you. We're just trying to make a statement. Bob Gibson made a whole career of throwing inside. I'm not talking about head hunting. I can tell you as a coach, 30 years, I never asked a pitcher to throw at a hitter. The greatest thing that pitcher could do was get that,

that guy he's mad at to get him out. But does that make sense? Yeah, and again, there's differences. That's why I don't think everything's the same in sports. Obviously, in hockey, you get like a five-minute sit-out for fighting, and that's going to hurt your team. But if you throw somebody's head,

you're going to get tossed from the game because that's not allowed in baseball. It happens, but it's quickly, all right. I'm over the break. Punish me. Bad DP. More. We'll close with the first hour when we come back.