[time4good]

Ok - a little extreme comeback you gave - so staying on point - think about it - guys playing hard - rough sport, other guy hard-tweaks your nip. It smarts (nature of it, no matter how big you are). You think - "ouch - jerk, " and then a few seconds later the macho factor of another guy tweaking your nip (which normal guys don't do) and it tweaks your head - only a few seconds later. Materazzi might have even busted him with words regarding it and, culmination of the moment, tournament and Materazzi's reputation that Zidane and others well know, and Zidane doesn't let it stand.

Stupid - YES, only explanation that makes sense. Unless Materazzi knew Zidane's mother or sister in some illicit relations.

[Jameison]

"- rough sport, other guy hard-tweaks your nip."

The point is, Materazzi's alleged "nipple pinching'" was done in the heat of battle, with both of them struggling for the ball.
That was with the ball in play.
There's plenty of shirt pulling, hand pulling, etc in soccer, and some of that shirt pulling can result in a nipple being pulled too, all that with the ball in play.

What Zidane did however is completely different.
He head butted Materazzi with no ball in play between them at all, and with he Zidane already jugging away from Materazzi.

It just doesn't make sense.
Only thing I can think of is Materazzi said something bad to Zidane.
But hey, in the NBA, players have been trash talking each other for as long as I can remember.
If people kept head butting each other for trash talking, we wouldn't have any games played at all.

[The Old Hoosier]

The only thing I can think of is that Materazzi said something about his wife.

[starfish923]

Ok - a little extreme comeback you gave - so staying on point - think about it - guys playing hard - rough sport, other guy hard-tweaks your nip. It smarts (nature of it, no matter how big you are). You think - "ouch - jerk, " and then a few seconds later the macho factor of another guy tweaking your nip (which normal guys don't do) and it tweaks your head - only a few seconds later. Materazzi might have even busted him with words regarding it and, culmination of the moment, tournament and Materazzi's reputation that Zidane and others well know, and Zidane doesn't let it stand.
Stupid - YES, only explanation that makes sense. Unless Materazzi knew Zidane's mother or sister in some illicit relations.

My guess is that comments about said women were said THROUGHOUT the game. That's old stuff...but it seems to still work, doesn't it?