Thursday, July 13, 2006

Your Mother Wears Army Boots.


What's with the hoopla over a head butt? Why is it that the guy who did the butting is the good guy, while the receiver of the infamous butt is getting all the flack? Why is this such incident evolving into an inquiry? Am I missing something here?

Granted, I'm not totally up to par on my soccer knowledge, though I did make a concerted attempt to watch some of the games and learned a lot in the process. My son, who soaked the FIFA World Cup up like a desert does water AND like every other sport that catches his eye, sat with me during many of the penalty kick excitement and explained some of the rules behind adding time to the clock when the clock ran out, what the different flags mean, etc etc. He also informed me early on in the matches that the guy to watch was a French player named Zidane, or Zizou to his myriad of fans.

Zidane is often considered to be one of the best footballers of his generation and one of the greatest of all time. A midfielder, he is known for his elegant dribbling, passing ability, shot accuracy, shot selection, control. His abilities have made him one of the game's finest players of his era. The Wayne Gretzky of soccer, with a John McInroe temper, perhaps?

So here he is in the last game of his career with the World Cup trophy up for grabs. The game is tied 1-1 and a nasty player named Materazzi from the opposing team hurls an insult at him that supposedly was so daringly despicable, that Zizou completely loses his focus, his cool and his restraint and whacks the player with his head. Thump!

Turns out, Materazzi struck the lowest verbal blow and called Zizou’s momma a bad name.

Excuse me, but aren’t a bunch of awful insults and threats bandied about during a sports match? Do you think a baseball Catcher in the last game of the World Series isn’t going to try his very best to bug the shit out of the Batter? Didn’t we all learn how to do that in little league? Unnerve your opponent! Psych em out!

The substance of the argument remained debated for a few days after the match. Newspapers had lip readers for goodness sake try to interpret what Materazzi had said. They came up with different interpretations, ranging from racist remarks concerning Zidane himself to obscene and insulting comments about the women in his life. I even read somewhere that an Australian lip reading expert was convinced Materazzi yelled something about a hamster. Ooooo that would unnerve even me!

Materazzi finally this week admitted that he did insult Zidane, but stressed that the insults were similar to the insults hurled out all the time………..the run of the mill trash talk that most often goes unnoticed He insisted that the insult was not racist in nature, nor did it involve Zidane's mother.

Zizou, winner of the Golden Ball award for best sportsman, retatliated by apologizing to the kiddies of France who have all been scarred over the incident (Gee, think of the post traumatic stress disorder epidemic if they had witnessed the baring of Janet Jackson’s breast……….too horrible to contemplate, really) and then stating that he didn’t regret his actions because if he did then that would mean that his opponent was right to say what he did.

Well, we’ll see Zizou. Right now, your country forgives you, your President applauds your passion, and your sponsors are sticking with you. We’ll see. Poor sports don’t win in the end. What a shame that this giant of the sports world will be known for time and eternity as a hotheaded head butting golden baller, and not for the monumental achievements on the field. He will be the butt of jokes for years to come as his name will become synonymous with selfishness in a team sport.

Hey Zizou...............you let your team down. Your maman still loves you.

10 comments:

X said...

Zidane said that they were comments about his mother. Although I don't agree with the head butt, in the heat of the moment people can do aweful things.

Canadian Sentinel said...

Zizou is a bozo.

Fact is that in civil society one doesn't use physical violence in response to verbal taunts. It is in fact against the law and there are other avenues provided to deal with such things.

Whether it's acceptable to make taunts in some sports... I don't really know.

But if society excuses violence just because someone's angry... well, it all goes downhill from there.

BTW, Awareness, surely you were being ironic about Jackson's boobie being "too horrible to contemplate"? Really... I was astonished at the public/MSM consternation over the simple sight of... a nipple. A nipple? So bloody what?

Why is it that gays get to march down the street stark naked in front of small children and people and the MSM say how wonderful it is? If folks complain about the display of some gay guys' wee-wees and balls in public they get branded as "hateful extremists" or something. So why are female breasts still considered to be scary and offensive, even in Ontario?

I don't think people realize this astonishing contradiction and double standard.

In fact, I did a post awhile back on the topic of "Equality and Nipples". I think you'll find it, not titillating, but eye-opening, thought-provoking and awareness-inducing. It proves that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is NOT being respected when it comes to gender equality.

Funny how leftists claim that marriage and sexual orientation are in the Charter (they actually are NOT, if one bothers to see for oneself), yet they fail to realize that forbidding the display of the female nipple while completely allowing the display of the male one absolutely violates the Charter's guarantee of equality regardless of sex.

Some moonbats actually think I'm nuts because of that post. Am I?

The post is here:

http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2006/04/equality-nipples.html

awareness said...

YES! I was being sarcastic! :) It was so outrageously silly that whole JJ episode......

saw "it" live on TV while sitting with my children and I must say they havent been the same since, really. I had to get them into counselling right away.........!!

Back to Zizou...... the whole episode is bozo-like. I mean really.... an inquiry over a head butt? Maybe it's because we grew up watching full body checks to the boards hockey and all the nastiness of playing the national sport (and yes I believe the violence in hockey is out of control at times) But, one head butt, and the guy is ejected and then tainted for the rest of his life?

Canadian Sentinel said...

Well, the head-butt did look particularly vicious and caused a big, tough guy to collapse, wincing in agony. What if he had been killed? It could happen. A blow to the heart strong enough could cause a heart attack or something. The bozo is lucky the other guy didn't die, otherwise he'd be facing a murder rap. All 'cause he can't control himself and act his age in the face of grave personal insults.

When I'm insulted, if in person, I just proceed to ignore the insulter, demand they apologize or tell 'em to F.O.... if it's on my blog, I warn 'em to be careful and if they do it again, they're banned. I won't hit anyone. Self-defence must be based on actual or clearly anticipated physical battery by someone else, not due to taunts... otherwise we'll have grownups acting like kids at recess (we remember that very well if we went to public school).

I just hate violence. Really. Nothing but problems come from it. Ironically, I do accept that war is sometimes necessary, though horrible and undesirable. I wish there were no wars, no hatred, etc... but bastards like Hitler, Hirohito, Bin Laden, Arafat, Haniyeh, and now, imminently, probably, Ahmadinejad and Jung Il... (and perhaps someday the Communist Chinese?)... they all want(ed) war, and they want(ed) to conquer those who never did anything to them. We can't just drop trou, bend over obediently and let 'em do whatever they want...

Life and the world will never be a utopian paradise. But whenever possible, fortunately, we can make lemonade from the lemons...

awareness said...

I should've elaborated more. The head butt was very childish. Zizou, the Pele of his day, reacted in a ridiculously immature manner. I agree with Outinleftfield.........we do some pretty awful things in the heat of the moment........but my goodness, I would think that if I was a TEAM PLAYER and LEADER of the team I would have the self-restraint and inner strength to laugh off the taunt and move on.

It's a simple playground bully move on the Italian player's part. My thinking? Zizou reacted the way he did because he is realy a bully who can take it when it's dished back. I also think that possibly his "greatness" went to his head....he was above the crowd and better than everyone........ maybe even referring to himself in 3rd person, which is the redlight indicator that an individual has lost perspective on himself.

Just my 2 cent psychology, after reading about his previous hot headed antics.

Ah.......don't you love sports?? I love the drama, the conflict, the debating, the controversy, the excitement, the agony (I'm a Leafs fan) and the ecstacy. I love the anticipation of the "big game" about to begin.....I love all the drama! Sporting events enhance life. Besides, what would men do if they didn't have sports to allow them carte blanche to emote?

We'd only have politics! :) umjcvm

Canuckguy said...

Jeez, why don't you two get a room.

Canadian Sentinel said...

Heh... of course I do love some sports... I confess to having learned a lot about tennis as I like to watch the ladies, like Hingis, Sharapova, Kournikova, Capriati... it's addictive...

I like to watch rally racing, you know, with the WRX STIs, the Evos, etc...

Now I'll watch anything with Danica Patrick racing in it... I remember two Indy 500s ago... she almost won, but had to settle for either fourth or last as her car was too low on remaining gas to keep pace to the finish line in first place. Now she's looking at NASCAR...

Canuckguy: "get a room"? What're you talking about? Can't two straight people carry on a conversation without being made to feel ashamed or dirty? We straights have rights, too, and we'll chat publicly with pride... except we don't usually wear outrageous outfits (or no outfits at all)...

Canuckguy said...

Gotcha Sentinel. Your indignant response is proof that right wing extremists are humoured challenged. Well as much proof that you put forward claiming 'mental disorders' are afflicting those who disagree with the extreme right wing of which you are a bonafide member. The proof of that is in your own words. MUH HA HA HA Ha(now slinking away)

awareness said...

Hey Canuck guy......

Will you please take your silly boy political bs argument back to where it belongs.

It doesn't belong here.

have a good evening!

Canuckguy said...

And where would that be?