Pre-Season NLL Brawl Prompts Review

((HT: TorontoRockLaxx/CP/TSN))

The National Lacrosse League is looking into a bench-clearing brawl earlier this month in a pre-season scrimmage between the Toronto Rock and Buffalo Bandits.

The December 15th game at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena in the town of Hagersville, Ontario, was called in the third quarter after the brawl with Buffalo leading 5-4.

The brawl saw players coming off the bench and pairing off across the playing surface, with both goalies going at it.

Toronto GM Terry Sanderson asked that fans who see the YouTube video of the brouhaha put it in perspective.

"They should realize it's no uglier than the hockey ones that I've seen, the baseball ones that I've seen," he said. "People sometimes try to, I believe, paint the lacrosse end of things as being very violent.

"Although it's something that nobody really condones, it's just there's not a lot of love lost between the two teams. It's pre-season, guys are just trying to let coaches know that they will do anything to make the club.

"It just exploded. And when these things do happen, it's just mass chaos. Things just broke out and the guys just thought they had to settle things themselves, I guess."

Sanderson expects fines and suspensions, but says such brawls are rare in his sport.

"I've seen it way more in baseball than I've seen it in lacrosse," he said.

The NLL office says any suspension arising from a scrimmage or pre-season games will be served during the regular season.

Here's your highlights...
The fun stuff starts about a minute in...

Your Weekly Lacrosse Fight

Figured we'd show this to you since it's fighting following a tremendous blind-side hit from the NLL
This is the Boston Blazers and New York Titans... Mitch Belisle laying out Jarrett Park...
Then, off the line change, Paul Dawson and Rory Smith take care of bid-ness...
And, no, there isn't any audio...
((HT: NLL/the youtube/Inside Lacrosse TV))