Even those of us who know so little about football recognize this as an infraction beyond the pale, an act which has no legitimate place. I’d rank it right up there with insulting an opposing player’s sick mother as far as inexcusable actions. It will be interesting to see if exactly what Materazzi said comes to public light.
I will say this though; if a sport ever comes about where players compete to out headbutt each other, my first pick will be Zidane. If players compete without the use of hands, instead slapping each other with upper torsos and craniums like a couple of love-struck seals then Zidane’s my captain. Legitimacy aside, the man can toss a wicked noggin.
SF Chronicle sports columnist CW Nevius wrote an article about the head butt yesterday. I was intrigued to see the comments to the article…they largely add up to “You stupid American! You know nothing about football! The Italians are all racist assholes and Zidane should have hit him harder!”
Other stories have Materazzi denying he called Zidane a “dirty terrorist”.
My personal favorite on-field blowup was in the Kansas City Chiefs - Denver Broncos football game in 1998 when KC linebacker Derrick Taylor got called for personal fouls on Denver’s Shannon Sharpe on 3 consecutive plays, and was then ejected. It emerged later that Taylor was dating Sharpe’s ex-girlfriend, and Sharpe kept telling him “Every time you kiss her, you’re tasting my ___”.
I was wondering a bit about this. Did Materazzi throw a flop when this happened or does Zidane give the burliest headbutt of all time? I’ve never seen anyone dropped by a headbutt before.
I would say that insults are part of the game. Materazzi got what he wanted, Zidane sent off. You don’t see cricketers being sent off and they throw some wicked comments at each other. Nothing that Materazzi could say should have provoked Zidane into his headbutt to the chest, he should have risen above it and let his feet and the ball do the talking.
That’s a pretty amusing article (even if I don’t know who all of the references are about…who the hell is Jimmy Nail?) but it’s nice to see that at least it was indeed a quality head butting.
What a fucking asshat. While watching the game, I was emmensely disappointed to see Zidane do that and get sent off. However, if the above is true, I completely reverse my feelings.
In perfect hindsight, it’s clear that getting sent off didn’t change the outcome of the game.
Any game, for that matter. Unless he backed it up with a Polaroid of his family tied up in a basement somewhere, reacting like that to some shit-talking, at that moment, in the absolute foremost pinnacle of the sport, no matter how horrendous the words, is fucking stupid.
IMHO, this argument falls apart when the game is decided by one-on-one penalty kicks. Otherwise, I’d agree much in the way it isn’t Buckner’s fault, nor Bartman’s.
True, but since we have the benefit of perfect hindsight it wouldn’t have made a difference. Presumably Zidane would have made his kick, but Trezugeut would still have shot.
I don’t care what was said, it’s just freaking words said in an obvious attempt to get him off his game, which it did. If he was offended by the random words said during a soccer match from a man of no consequence then he will have plenty of other opportunity to handle that. Yes, Matzerrati is probablya scum, that hardly matters, IMO.
I think this is a case of people (Americans) not knowing about the sport in general and Zidane in particular and are making a lot more of than it is. Headbutts, slaps, stomps, kicks, spitting, etc. are really not that rare in real (non-US) soccer. Sure, offenses in the last minutes of a World Cup final are more noticable, but was it that much different from what Rooney did? Again, blame the media- people who never watch soccer but tuned in to the Cup got announcers giving non-stop praise of the saintly Zidane, not knowing that he is no stranger to red cards. Then he explodes, and they think it’s a big deal. The buffoon US announcer used the word “vicious” about twenty times like a drama queen in need of a thesarus. The headbutt was to the chest, not to the head, and obviously did not hurt the other player at all- he clearly faked the fall to the ground. And obviously all that bullshit about FIFA stomping out racism is a farce if no action is taken on the poor Italian who “does not even know what a terrorist is”?? My ass. If you’re gonna kick out Zidane for something caught on replay, not live, have the sense to find what triggered the outburst and penalize the racist taunts as well.
As for insults are part of the game- Barcelona striker Sameul Eto’o gets bananas thrown at him, along with monkey noises and called every derogotory black name there is- this is just part of the game as well?
As far as the reaction is concerned, it was total crap. If you can’t handle a few comments till the game is over you’re compromising the TEAM not just yourself, and you have no place on the field. Whether or not France lost because of it is irrelevant. The point is that if a player can blow up like that, he can do it at any time.
As has been said, if it was that offensive that he felt justified in retaliating violently, he should have found a convenient dark alley to have a nice personal talk about it after the game, not during play.
So we give a free pass just because maybe another player made a derogatory comment? I don’t think so. Zidane was out of the game and didn’t have the legs for it. He was frustrated and took it out on the Italian. So we now have to demonize him to justify Zidane’s petulence and utter stupidity?
Why aren’t people calling for his arrest? Shouldn’t he be charged with assault? If this had happened in a hockey game the outcry would be enormous, why should Zidane get off easier?
