I don't disagree with that either.
Now see, somewhere in the real world not inhabited by trolls and Napears, virtually everything that happened throughout the incident made some kind of sense. Dunleavy may have accidentally done more than he intended. Cousins, having no way to know that, took umbrage as a guy chopped his knees and sent him to the ground. Being Cousins, he doesn't cool down (the one stupid person here is the coach who left him in). Cousins challenges Dunleavy. But its not a simple question, its a challenge., So Dunelavy tells him "**** you! What if it was." Now Cousins, having had his knees chopped and having been told **** you by the chopper, decides on a little retriubution.
Not one thing in my little story there is unlikely, and not one thing in that little story is indicative of anybody being particularly out of control. Two competitive players get into an altercation. It happens 20 years ago to Mailman, he would have sent Dunleavy flying with an elbow too. The difference is that Cousins is a young hothead, and so he's pissed and does it all at once, not thinking of anything but. Mailman would have waited a bit. Sometime in the early 4th maybe on the break. This tit for tat stuff happens in competitive sports. Only because its Cousins and he has not yet learned patience and acceptability does it become a story, let alone another opportunity for a bunch of ninnies to squeal about Cousins cancerous nature.