Monday, July 10, 2006

a whole new level of "what were you thinking"?

what a truly baffling turn of events.



this morning, the BBC elaborates on a possible motivation:

Zinedine Zidane's agent says the French captain headbutted Marco Materazzi in Sunday's World Cup final because the Italian made a "very serious" comment...

Sources in France say it is believed that Materazzi insulted Zidane's mother.


ok, first of all, "sources in france say it is believed"? could a more shaky attribution for an idea be concocted? and secondly, even if materazzi did insult zidane's mother, are we supposed to imagine that this was the first time zidane had bumped up against a "yo mama" joke on the pitch? please. i'm sure zidane has handled slander, libel, and heresy against his mother many times before, and still managed not to knock someone to the ground with the top of his head. you think he could have managed the same kind of restraint for 20 more minutes.

regardless, i'm still dying to know what materazzi said. who isn't?

4 comments:

educand - said...

OMG, did this ever crack me up. I mean, yeah, totally unprofessional, but people will remember it forever. I guess he was, uh, stressed out?

Mike Caulfield said...

The whole thing is odd. Zidane looks so composed just seconds before.

If it was something about his parents it might be the old accusation that his parents were traitors to Algeria and worked with the French. Harkies they call them, which would simultaneously be an ethnic slur and a mother insult.

I thought the most shameful thing was how fast the announcers turned on him. After weeks of talking about his class they talked about this "atrocious" foul. Positively 4th Street.

Has anybody remarked that Zidane hit this guy in precisely the way that would do no damage to him? My brother is a martial arts champion and he says head, neck, nuts, gut abdomen. If you wanted to really hurt somebody you'd go for that.

People say he tried to hit M's head and missed, but the tape doesn't show that....

Stacey said...

What I found particularly interesting was that it seemed completely random at first. But then you see the two of them exchange words & Zidane jog ahead of Materazzi. He then turned & came back full steam into Materazzi's chest. So either he was jogging away, prepared to let it go, & changed his mind or he was just gathering speed for the impact. Unfortunate, either way.

Anonymous said...

A BRAZILIAN NEWSPAPER HIRED A GROUP OF DEAF PEOPLE TO TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT HAD MATERAZZI SAID. ACCORDING TO THEM MATERAZZI INSULTED ZIDANE´S MOTHER AND SISTER BUT THEY DECIDED NOT TO PUBLISH THE COMPLETE CONVERSATION. i THINK IT IS CLEAR THAT MATERAZZI KNEW SOMETHING ABOUT THE PRIVATE LIFE OF ZIDANE´S FAMILY AND MADE USE OF IT. ALSO THE IMAGES SHOW MATERAZZI SHAKING THE INJURED ELBOW OF ZIDANE. i'M FOR MY PART AIN´T NO SAINT AND IF SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENED TO ME I WOULD REACT IN A SIMILAR WAY. aLSO THE MOST SERIOUS AGGRESION IN THIS WORLS CUP WAS BY AN ITALIAN PLAYER AGAINST A US PLAYER. The italian player still played in the final. Who loves football, has to love Zidane, headbut or no headbut. He was the best player of the last 20 years