Written by This past weekend, Kevin Durant was ejected from a game for shoving an opposing player three times, the last time elbowing and shoving him in the neck. This came a game after where the Brooklyn Nets player should have been ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct, where he was later fined by the NBA for those actions. Is Kevin Durant becoming an enforcer for the Brooklyn Nets?
I do not have that answer, however, I began researching past articles to see if this type of role is currently prevalent and expected by coaches, athletes, and teams in sports. While it was a quick research effort, I did see less articles over the past 20 or so years about enforcers, but I did see a steady increase in the two years leading up to the COVID 19 pandemic.
While my research did not reveal that enforcers were in use like they were in 1970s-1980s ice hockey, it was interesting to see that enforcers were making a comeback. Why were athletes being used this way again in sports? I decided to dig a little bit deeper to find out by interviewing two athletes and two coaches, all in different sports and different levels.
While the sample size was extremely small, their short interviews were eye opening. All four coaches and athletes said that in the last few years there has been an increasing need for enforcers. The use of an enforcer was not with the intent of injuring other athletes to win games or matches, but as a defense mechanism for opposing team members who were playing dirty or maliciously trying to injure others. It also was identified that the enforcer normally began their work after a combination of a long period of the opposing player(s) continuing to play dirty and with the intent to harm others and the officials not seeing or calling fouls or penalties that could eventually lead to injury if left unchecked.
A professional athlete shared with me that “If the officials do not get control of the game within the first few minutes, we know that we will need to start protecting ourselves”. Athletes know that they must stay healthy and if the officials will not protect the athletes, they will have to take matters into their own hands. The high school athlete told me that his team has an unwritten rule to always tells the official at least twice before they take action: “We’ll tell them two times, after that, it is up to us”.
A national team coach told me that while he does not have a designated player to be the enforcer and does not encourage the role, he will not stop the athletes from “protecting themselves and the team”. The collegiate coach that I spoke to shared that “bullies are identified quickly by my players and will be stopped no matter what” by the referees or by her team. She told me that it happens more than half of her team’s games and she did have players that she would specifically rotate in to quell the aggressor(s).
These short discussions were extremely interesting to have but learning why the role is becoming a more frequent occurrence was a peek into the current climate in most, if not all levels of sports. While the enforcer role seems to have changed over the decades from an aggressor always on the attack in order to prevent others’ aggression to a protector that is only used when needed, it shows that many athletes and coaches still believe that purposefully injuring opposing players is a viable game plan option. If teams still believe in injuring opposing players in order to secure a win, what type of leadership or organizational culture is fostered and how does this also reflect on the leagues or governing bodies who does not take enough action to protect athletes?