Posted on 07/10/2006 7:32:00 PM PDT by SkyPilot
Our correspondent finds out what may have caused a great player to lose his head in such spectacular style
WITH his monkish mien backed by a sense of brooding menace, Zinédine Zidane has always been something of an enigma, so it is perhaps fitting that the final act of his career should be the source of such mystery. Just why did a man blessed with complete control of a football lose his head in such a violent manner at such a crucial moment, boring it into the chest of Marco Materazzi?
As LEquipe summed up the moment of madness with a headline of Regrets Éternels, a day of endless questioning began. With many conflicting versions of events circling on the internet and in the worlds media, The Times enlisted the help of an expert lip reader, Jessica Rees, to determine the precise nature of the dialogue that caused Zidane to react in such a manner.
After an exhaustive study of the match video, and with the help of an Italian translator, Rees claimed that Materazzi called Zidane the son of a terrorist whore before adding so just f*** off for good measure, supporting the natural assumption that the Frenchman must have been grievously insulted.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
True (no offense Pilot). Because all terrorists are girly-men cowards doesn't make all girly-men terrorists.
You sound like a certified badass.
probably the impending loss drove him over the edge.
Then you would lose the psychological game as he did. If I knew a little "mama talk" would unsettle a player I would be unmerciful.
It is Cartman. Whoever made this dubbed in some old SP dialogue.
There has been trash talk as long as there has been sports. But you make a good point. The idea is to make the insulter eat his words. Instead, he gave his opponent GREAT satisfaction.
Only a fool would lose his composure.
Nah, but in Los Angeles, Trash Talk is part of the game -- from the blacktop of South Central to the suburbs of Encino.
"109: Countdown, ignition. Tangles with Materazzi, apparently harmlessly, going for cross. |Play has moved down the pitch when Zidane exchanges words with Materazzi, walks away and smiles wistfully.| Continues to walk, but, as Materazzi appears to mumble further remarks, turns and launches forceful headbutt into Italians chest."
I think that's waht earned him the harsh words.. to which he responded with a head butt.. fool
Zidane's responsibility is to captain the team and win matches. He is not on the team to have fights. He could have just as easily helped his team to win and then slugged Materazzi in the nose after the game was over. He would still look absurd...but at least he wouldn't drag the team down with him.
~ Blue Jays ~
Of course he should have ignored it instead of getting suckered into a red card. But that doesn't change the fact that the Italian(s) was a total piece of garbage, and it sounds like you are, too. I've never liked the obscene trash-talking as bait tactic, and of course have zero respect for anyone who has to resort to it to compensate for their inadequacies. Machiavellian, but still morally repugnant.
I heard your mom's like a birthday cake, everybody gets a piece.
I heard your mom's like a door knob, everybody gets a turn.
If you don't say anything about my iron c**k, I won't tell anybody about the rust between your mom's teeth.
Ahhh, Summer vacation! Where have those days gone?
Is she?
On a sunny afternoon in Philadelphia last November, a dangerous melodrama unfolded on the carpeted concrete of Veterans Stadium. But save for the few players involved, no one noticed it, not even the officials on the field.
The 7-3 Eagles were playing the 7-3 Redskins. Early in the second quarter, with Washington up 3-0 and driving for another score, a Gus Frerotte pass bounced off the hands of diving tight end Jamie Asher at the Philadelphia five and into the arms of cornerback Troy Vincent. As Vincent turned upfield and Asher climbed to his feet, Eagles middle linebacker James Willis clubbed the Redskins tight end with a shot to the back of the head. Predictably, Asher and Willis were at each other's throats immediately, and it took a half-dozen players to separate them.
That was just the beginning. On the sideline after the play, Washington's offense gathered and agreed that Willis had to be punished. He had drawn a flag for a punch to Asher's face after the play was over, but they felt he should have been ejected for the blind-side rabbit punch that instigated the skirmish. (It wasn't only the officials who had missed Willis's sucker punch; so had the Fox TV crew covering the game. After a commercial break the network aired a replay that began with Asher's missing with a retaliatory haymaker at Willis, while broadcasters Pat Summerall and John Madden implied that it was Asher who had started the fight.)
Three plays into Washington's next offensive series, on third-and-inches, 308-pound tackle Joe Patton hit the 235-pound Willis behind the right knee while 284-pound center Jeff Uhlenhake bulldozed him over the top of the pile. Willis, the Eagles' second-leading tackler last season, was out for the rest of the game with a sprained knee. He made only eight tackles in Philadelphia's five remaining games.
To anyone watching the game, Willis's injury looked like an accident. To be sure, in the dog-eat-dog world of the NFL, the line between physical play and dirty play is often tough to draw. But cheap shots do occur, and much of the unsportsmanlike conduct goes unnoticed.
"The average fan doesn't know what takes place out therethe name-calling, the spitting, the pinching," says Bears linebacker Barry Minter. "I've been on piles and heard guys hollering, 'He's biting me!'"
"It's just part of the game," says Seahawks running back Steve Broussard. "In the trenches, cheap shots go on during every play."
Players have always considered dirty play more a necessary evil than a deadly sin. But according to a recent Sports Illustrated poll of more than 150 players, it appears to be on the rise. "It's going up," says Raiders linebacker Anthony Davis. "You've got rookies coming into the league, they see these guys, and they think that's the way to play. With free agency you've got players bouncing around the league trying to catch on. I think it's going to get worse with more guys moving around."
Maybe that head ball that he just missed on might have been
the spark.
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