The Zidane Incident

i have absolutely no interest in soccer, but.. i cant lie, i made sure i saw the headbutt that everyone was talking about. i guarantee tons more people around here would be watching if that kind of stuff happened more. and im with saden, i am ready for some football

Great article from Dr. Z (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/dr_z/07/10/zidane/index.html) on the head-butt. Sorry, my teaser is a little long here:

Picture this. Michael Strahan is tired of offensive linemen grabbing him, strangling him, chopping at his legs, talking never-ending trash, generally messing with him in fringe illegal methods and getting away with it. So he head-butts someone.

Will he get thrown out of the game? Probably not. He'll get a flag. But put him in the context of World Cup Football and the ridiculous grand opera tragedy it has become and he would not only get thrown out but a lifetime of greatness would be ruined -- at least for now.

Zinedine Zidane is not a flopper or a whiner or a moaner. I have never seen him pull one of those scenes from the last act of La Boheme, enacting his death tableau on the field after the merest brush of contact. I haven't seen him lying there at death's door while they go through with the most ridiculous of all dramas, the entry of the stretcher.

BBC Radio Five Live asked for help from a deaf lip reader, Jessica Rees, who read the words phonetically to an Italian translator.

She deciphered the insult as being "you're the son of a terrorist whore" - a translation also carried by many national newspapers in Britain on Tuesday.

The BBC's Ten O'Clock News also called in experts to study the television footage of the incident and determined the following:

Materazzi's first word to Zidane was "no" before he then told him to "calm down".

He then accused him of being a "liar" and wished "an ugly death to you and your family" on the day the Frenchman's mother had been taken to hospital ill. This was followed by "Go f*** yourself".

Zidane's agent, Alain Migliaccio, has hinted that Zidane will soon reveal exactly what was said by Materazzi.

i hate it when idiots like dr. z try and write about soccer when they dont have a clue, having to compare it to football, it doesnt work.

dont see how people can say soccer is boring and love to watch baseball to be honest...

Great article from Dr. Z (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/dr_z/07/10/zidane/index.html) on the head-butt. Sorry, my teaser is a little long here:

Maybe Strahan doesn't get booted from the game for a helmet-to-helmet head butt, but he would if he spat on his opponent. Zidane's headbutt is like Taylor's spit.

i hate it when idiots like dr. z try and write about soccer when they dont have a clue, having to compare it to football, it doesnt work.

dont see how people can say soccer is boring and love to watch baseball to be honest...

Z's right though. The whole reason players flop so much in soccer is because players get red cards and get thrown out of the entire game if they lash out. If you can make a little hip check look like a major takedown, then you can gain a serious advantage for your team. Hence the whole stretcher thing, the more they make it look like a serious injury, the better chance the ref has of pulling the red card. Which is, of course, ridiculous.

Soccer needs to get rid of that stupid rule. In the NFL players take swipes at each other and get 15-yard flags. It's hard to get ejected. In baseball, if you throw at a guy's head you'll usually get a warning. Soccer's automatic ejections for stuff like this give a big advantage to the other team, so no wonder you have a bunch of guys flopping around like a bunch of vaginas.

I mean why not do it like hockey? You take a swing at someone, you get a 5-minute major. Sit out for 5 minutes and get back in there. Having a one-man advantage for an entire game swings the outcome of the game way too much. Should one moment of indiscretion affect an entire team's chances of winning THAT much? It's the rules that are causing those guys to flop around like a bunch of limp-wristed girly-men.

Maybe Strahan doesn't get booted from the game for a helmet-to-helmet head butt, but he would if he spat on his opponent. Zidane's headbutt is like Taylor's spit.

He would also get thrown out if he threw a punch. I don't care if you think that the italian guy flopped or over-reacted, that headbutt would hurt like hell.

I said before, Zidane obviously knows how to use his head to his advantage from years of playing soccer.
Also, the italian was running into it, which probably increased the force of the impact.
And, third, Zidane actually could have literally killed him with that shot. I know it sounds like I'm being dramatic, but it could have stopped his heart. A year or two ago the captain for Cornell's Lax team was killed when he took a ball to the chest because it caused his heart to stop. Likewise, I remember reading a few years ago that some drunk friends were trying to see who could withstand the hardest punch to the chest. One of them died when his sternum cracked and stopped his heart.

I just feel like the more I see that hit the worse it gets.

soccer is still pretty boring though

Maybe Strahan doesn't get booted from the game for a helmet-to-helmet head butt, but he would if he spat on his opponent. Zidane's headbutt is like Taylor's spit.

Yeah, and I'm on record saying Taylor shouldn't have been ejected for that. But I'm not going to go there again.

There is a difference though. When Taylor was sent out, we could replace him with Prioleau. When Zidane went out, Italy got a one-man advantage FOR THE REST OF THE GAME. It has too great an affect on the outcome.

Yeah, and I'm on record saying Taylor shouldn't have been ejected for that. But I'm not going to go there again.

There is a difference though. When Taylor was sent out, we could replace him with Prioleau. When Zidane went out, Italy got a one-man advantage FOR THE REST OF THE GAME. It has too great an affect on the outcome.

That's all the more reason that Zidane should have been smarter about the whole thing.

I said before, Zidane obviously knows how to use his head to his advantage from years of playing soccer.
Also, the italian was running into it, which probably increased the force of the impact.
And, third, Zidane actually could have literally killed him with that shot. I know it sounds like I'm being dramatic, but it could have stopped his heart. A year or two ago the captain for Cornell's Lax team was killed when he took a ball to the chest because it caused his heart to stop. Likewise, I remember reading a few years ago that some drunk friends were trying to see who could withstand the hardest punch to the chest. One of them died when his sternum cracked and stopped his heart.

I just feel like the more I see that hit the worse it gets.

soccer is still pretty boring though[/quote]

That's definitely pretty dramatic. You know the odds on that happening? That's like me dressing in rubber clothing everytime I go out in a thunderstorm for fear of getting hit by lightning.