Excluding combat sports such as wrestling, boxing, martial arts, etc, which sport do you think is the most violent (feel free to devise your own metrics for this - examples below)?
Ice hockey seems violent in terms of physical force - there’s a lot of slamming, barging, elbowing, etc.
Water Polo seems violent if measured by intent - although the physical injuries may not stack up as much as in other games, players hold each other under the water, gouge and scratch each other, etc.
What contenders would you propose for the most brutal or violent sport?
Concur, especially for the guys on the O-line and the D-line. Hockey has a lot of contact, but it’s not as full-body, all-on, every play, the way it is in football.
Aussie Rules is a strong contender - to the layman, it seems there’s almost no concept of ‘foul’. I’d say it beats American football (because it’s played without much protective gear) and beats Rugby because it allows climbing over opponents, or tackling them in the upper body using your legs etc.
Shinty and hurling are much the same - a hard ball, sticks/clubs being swung with abandon and until very recently a culture which derided helmets and mouthguards as “soft”. For example,this guy is complaining that too few players nowadays interpose their expendable body between a rapidly swinging stick and the ball their opponent is trying to hit with it. A quick google shows that shinty is a leading cause of eye injuries (and permanent vision impairment) in the Highlands, not to mention concussions, lost teeth, broken limbs etc.
