To the Editor:
I am writing to voice my strong disagreement with Jennifer Yu's article, "Zidane deserves sympathy, not scorn, following head-butt," (July 13) expressing understanding for Zinedine Zidane's disgraceful act on the pitch in last Sunday's final. Regardless of what was said, Zidane was wrong to head-butt Materazzi. Materazzi should be held responsible if he said something racist, of course. Indeed, FIFA regulations regarding racially-based taunts were made harsher just prior to Germany 2006. Zidane, however, must be held responsible for his physical violence.
Yu implies that Materazzi dove, which leaves me to question whether she has ever been unexpectedly head-butted in the chest. I have. Now I'm not implying that Zidane's polished dome had the effect of a machine gun (Materazzi may have simply lost his balance moving backwards), but I highly doubt that the Italian defender threw himself onto the grass.
Yu's use of Christ's quote is distorted. Jesus said those words to the Pharisees, hypocrites who had committed sins against God that were greater than the woman's. Christ told the woman to go and "sin no more." The story ended there, but one of the morals is that others' sins are no excuse for our own, for if the woman had continued to sin, she would have been just as guilty before God as her accusers. Likewise, how Materazzi used his tongue cannot justify how Zidane used (or rather, didn't use) his head. There cannot be "cutting of any slack" for Zizou. Zidane should have known better, but he acted foolishly. In his final match, which happened to be the most important match of the most important tournament of the most important sport in the world, Zidane chose to go down in ignominious disgrace. Actions speak louder than words. In this case, Zidane's actions embarrassed himself, cost Les Bleus the second star on their jerseys and disgraced the beautiful game.
