This type of thinking goes against the thinking of sport as perceived by the Greeks, the founders of the Olympic Games, in which the games and contests were to be the expression of physical abilities of the individual, the mastery of the body and its potential and capable movements and strengths. In the individual competitions, the quest was not to defeat and destroy ones competitor, but to compare one's physical masteries to another's, and to illustrate and recognize that higher achievements are indeed possible. In the sport of weightlifting, for example, a man or woman does not set out to defeat another person, but to show how his or her methods of training, attitude, and care of the body, and the body itself can be tuned to perfection and approach the limits of human potential. There is no animosity towards the other competitor, no wish to disgrace the other contestant. Only the quest to become the best, at no expense to the other.
Team sports are somewhat different.
In their finest form, team sports are ideally, supposed to be identical in goal. The quest is to have a group of individuals reach the highest physical and mental potentials possible as a unit. The problem with all team sports is that they play out scenarios which are culturally, related to those of the tribal or national battle scenario. And in doing this, both the individual sportsman and also the spectator becomes caught up in that scenario, which is linked to attitudes and values which have to do more with group and cultural survival, than with the demonstration of a mastery of the body and the discipline of the individual and the group. I believe that much of the attitude under which we perceive team sports such as hockey comes from the effects of war, in particular, the first and second world wars.