The Top 10 Team Brawls in Sports History

Scraps and scruffs happen all the time in sports. No big deal; just a little extra shoving after the whistle in football or hockey, some words exchanged after a bad play in basketball, or a few gestures to the pitcher who just threw a high hard one in baseball.

These are all just bush-league acts that come and go like the wind.

But this list contains the fights. The fights that don't take place between two opposing players, but brawls that take place between opposing teams. These are the monumental fights that sports fans talk about to this very day.

Here is a list of the top 10 team brawls of all-time.

10. Bruins Brawl With The Habs

This old school battle between Boston and Montreal started after a penalty call. Two players duel at half ice, and suddenly, all hell breaks loose.

Similar to the Pistons/Pacers brawl, fans get tangled up in the mess.

9. Red Sox/Rays Battle Royal

The Rays come to town looking to skim down the lead Boston has on the AL East. They would soon find out that the Red Sox weren't just going to lay dead and give it away.

Rays pitcher, James Shields, tags Coco Crisp, and Crisp charges the mound. Underneath all of the mayhem, Crisp said that Tampa outfielder, Carl Crawford, pulled his corn rows like a little girl.

Sorry fans but this video can't be embedded.
If you really want to see it here's a link!

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8. The Fridge Gets Revenge

The St. Louis Cardinals, once from Chicago and now located in Arizona, travel to Solider Field to take on the Bears. A fight breaks out towards the visitors' side of the field. A bunch of Cardinal players drag a lone Bear to their sideline and beat on him.

Chicago would get its revenge when William "The Fridge" Perry wrestles down Cards running back Stump Mitchell and takes him out of the game. This video is only missing three things:

1. McMahon was not involved in the game or the fight.
2. Ditka was not involved in the fight and showed a lack of emotion.
3. John Madden forgot his highlighter while breaking down the action.

7. Arroyo Plunks A-Rod

The two biggest rivals in sports get into it after Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo hits AL MVP Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez has some words for Arroyo as he walks to first. Catcher, Jason Varitek, gets involved and shoves A-Rod in the face.

Then the benches clear and several fights break out. Gabe Kapler got into it with Yankees starter Tanyon Sturtze. Boston's Trot Nixon and David Ortiz soon jumped in. Sturtze was bleeding from the left ear.

Varitek and Rodriguez were ejected from the game.

6. Retribution In Hockeytown

Darren McCarty takes a Peter Forsberg/Igor Larionov scrap as an opportunity to seek revenge on Claude Lemieux for Lemieux's cheap shot on Kris Draper in Game Six of the Western Conference Finals in 1996.

The payback led to an all-out battle royal on ice including the two goalies, Patrick Roy and Mike Vernon.

5. Pedro vs Zimmer In The '03 ALCS

The hatred between the Yankees and Red Sox shines its ugly face again in the 2003 ALCS in Boston. Pedro Martinez threw a dirty pitch that hit New York's Karim Garcia in the back. Garcia wasn't too pleased with it and neither were the Yankees.

Garcia would get the green light and slid hard into second knocking down Todd Walker and causing a bench clearing.

Included in the cross fire was, 72 year old bench coach, Don Zimmer. Pedro Martinez grab hold of him and tossed the poor old man to the ground.

4. Skirmish At The Square

At Madison Square Garden, the Nuggets owned this game from the tip off. In frustration, the Knicks Mardy Collins hits J.R. Smith with a flagrant foul. Words are exchanged until Nate Robinson throws in a shove and ends up wrestling Smith into the crowd.

Nuggets superstar Carmelo Anthony lands a revenge jab at Collins and Jared Jefferies rushes in after Melo.

All 10 players on the court at the time were ejected and Melo took a big 15 game suspension.

3. The Orange Bowl Onslaught

With only nine miles separating FIU and Miami University, I'd say that it would be a fair assumption that these two teams knew each other fairly well. Most of these players grew up in the same areas and played football with or against one another.

But this wasn't just a neighborhood tiff.

This was a riot. Helmets were being used as war hammers, people were getting kicked in the head and even crutches were utilized as deadly weapons.

This free-for-all landed 31 suspensions for both schools.

2. Sens/Flyers Record-Breaking Scuffle

This fight had everything one can want in a hockey fight. A goalie fight, two known brawlers (Brashear and Ray), and pure chaos in all directions.

This fight broke an NHL record for penalty minutes. The Flyers' 213 minutes and Ottawa's 206 totaled an astonishing 419 penalty minutes. The previous record for penalty minutes was 406 by the Minnesota North Stars and Boston Bruins in 1981.

1. The Malice at the Palace

This is a no brainer. Everyone knows that Ron Artest is a hot head, but this was over the top even for him. After a hard foul by Artest, Piston's center Ben Wallace becomes infuriated and shoves Artest. Ron backs down from the fight, and who blames him?

But Artest antagonizes Wallace and Piston's fans by laying nonchalantly on a table. Then all hell breaks loose in Detroit when a cup is thrown at Artest and he jumps into the crowd.

The rest of the story is written down as the worst night in NBA history.