Zinedine Zidane should have retired gloriously, amid applause, flowers and tears. Instead, he was ejected from the final game of his career, the World Cup final, only 10 minutes before the end of the overtime. Zidane, the son of Algerian immigrants, watched his French team fall to Italy in penalty kicks from the locker room.
Why? Because he head-butted Marco Materazzi in front of a billion World Cup fans across the globe. Zidane claims that Materazzi insulted his mother and sister. In retaliation, Zidane rammed into Materazzi like an angry bull.
Materazzi was pretty cooperative. He fell to the ground on cue like a rag doll. If I didn't know better, I would have thought that Zidane's head was made from corundum.
Seriously, though, after watching the "head-butt felt 'round the world" on youtube.com repeatedly on Wednesday morning, I was left more perplexed than ever. The explanation of the event is Materazzi's, as Zidane has refused to comment on his behavior.
The story, according the account Materazzi gave to reporters, goes something like this: "I held his shirt for only a few seconds. He turned towards me and scoffed at me, looking at me with super arrogance, up and down. He said, 'If you really want my shirt, you can have it later.' It's true, I shot back with an insult."
Materazzi didn't specify what the insult was, exactly. He did, however, claim that it was "always heard in and around the football field."
Lip-readers hired by newspapers and television stations across the globe said that Materazzi may have called Zidane "the son of a terrorist whore," "a dirty terrorist" or some variation thereof. Although these lip reading "experts" can't agree on what exactly had been said, they all agree that it was intensely derogatory.
Materazzi denied these allegations when he returned to Rome, saying to the press there, "It is absolutely not true. I did not call him a terrorist. I'm ignorant. I don't even know what the word means."
Sure, Materazzi.
Personally, I am more sympathetic to Zidane. Imagine this: your mother couldn't attend the most important game, not to mention the last, of your professional career because she is hospitalized in France. Then this guy decided to call your ailing mother a "terrorist whore" and subsequently defame your sister. What would you do?
I probably would have punched the chump in the face -- mostly because I don't have Zidane's flair for the dramatic, or any head-butting experience.
Yes, I know it is "unprofessional" to head-butt another competitor. Zidane should have been the bigger man and kept his cool. Virtually every major newspaper in the world has panned the swan song of his career. Parents question Zidane's legitimacy as a role model for their eight-year-old sons. More than a quarter of the French population surveyed found his behavior distasteful. Yada, yada, yada.
Cut the man some slack! I believe someone pretty famous once said, "He who is without sin cast the first stone." Can you say that you never intentionally tripped that really mean boy who pulled on your hair? I'm drifting a bit, but the point is, Zidane will forever be remembered as "the guy who lost it at the 2006 World Cup." Isn't that punishment enough?
FIFA's investigation might solve the head-butt mystery, but it will not change the outcome of the 2006 World Cup. The Italians won. It's over.
Watching sports on television is supposed to be a fun pasttime. But when racial slurs color the game we know so well, then the meaning of the game, what makes it great, is lost. Perhaps I should have watched Wimbledon. I don't think an insult has been flung at the All England Club since McEnroe retired.
