So Zinedine Zidane is on French TV at the moment, offering a long overdue reason for his unbelievable assault of Marco Materazzi in the waning moments of the World Cup final. His explanation? "He pronounced very tough words about my mother and my sister". Surely a lousy translation, but still ... that's it? Have you ever played in a professional game before? If the NBA went by this logic, we woudn't see more than two seconds of continuous gameplay before a brawl erupted. Like it or not, trash talking is a part of modern sport. And it's going to stay filthy, despicable, and obscene as long as it has its desired effect on one's opponent. Which it certainly did in this case.

Detestable as it may be, verbal abuse is part and parcel of the trade of a professional athlete. I can't see any real way to regulate it, and i'm not sure it needs to be regulated. Someone said something stupid about your mother? Say something stupid about his mother. Or better yet, shove his words down his throat by humiliating him on the field/court/pitch. Zidane is now whining about how he was provoked, and how the authorities always blame retaliation but never provocation, and that without provocation there would be no retaliation, blah blah blah. Did Materazzi punch you behind the ref's back? No. Did he kick you in the groin? No. Did he rape your sister? No. Did he say he would? Maybe. But they're just WORDS. It's still no excuse for you to turn into Andre the Giant. Zidane has apologized but declared he doesn't regret his actions, for if he did it would mean Materazzi's statements were right. I don't really follow this logic, and it's really just a semantic game at this point. I don't think there is any real explanation or justification for what he did, beyond that he lost his s@$# for a few seconds.

Speaking of professional wrestling, what is it with footie players and head butts? There's something completely ridiculous about it. If you're that pissed off, why don't you just deck the guy? Is a head butt more likely to be missed by the refs? Are you worried about injuring your hands? I could see this argument working in baseball. A player with a broken throwing hand is screwed, but nonetheless a bench-clearing brawl is done with fists, not head butts. But for some reason, soccer players are worried about breaking their hands. That they don't use. Odd.