Comments on: Headbutt Sullies Soccer’s Image? Oh, Puh-leeze

By: Curry Chicken

Curry Chicken — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 23:47:24 +0000

*reads Marth and Laurie’s comments*

*squishes them togther in her arms*

I love you guys.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 15:05:02 +0000

And Martha, you’re probably right. I am letting him off easy. Especially since he was captain of the team. But, y’know, moms do tend to cut their kids some slack occasionally.

And pursuing that thought is just…icky. So I’m done now.

By: Martha

Martha — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 01:16:40 +0000

HA! Well, the review got a comment from a woman I WAS IN LINE NEXT TO at the movie who saw it because of a “Zidane” newsfeed. So no — I actually almost didn’t bother b/c I though maybe you’d be alerted the moment it went live. It’s a magnificent movie in about a billion different ways, even for those without a Zizou obsession. I can’t wait for you to see it. (Do you have a region-free DVD player? I just preordered it here.)

By: Laurie

Laurie — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 23:09:53 +0000

Martha, I SO want to see that movie. A French audiomagazine I subscribe to did a piece on how it was made a couple of months ago and I’ve been dying to see it ever since. I am patient. I will wait.

P.S. Would it freak you out to know that I’d already read your review? (And, of course, loved it.) Google is a frighteningly powerful thing.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 20:43:41 +0000

A kinder, gentler blog? Oh, shoot. My estrogen is showing.

(Hate when that happens.)

Thanks, Luis. You’re a good addition to the mix as well. “… the drama was no less worthy of the greatest stage on Earth.” Well put.

By: Luis

Luis — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 19:35:28 +0000

Ladies – thank you for making this a “a kinder, gentler” blog. Nice to hear some real point of views expressed without underlying aggression.

Football is first and foremost a spectacle. We watch and then impose upon the spectacle, and it’s participants, our deepest emotions and passions. That’s why it’s so tumultuous. Players are not different. They have their nature and we should not expect them to be anything but themselves. Hopefully we all grow from experience, but emotions can get carried away at any age.

We all lived that head butt. It could not have happened any other way. To change it would be to unthread what makes us, us. Zizou is still a giant of the pitch and always will be. This WC was bumpy, but the drama was no less worthy of the greatest stage on Earth.

By: Martha

Martha — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 19:21:09 +0000

Oh, and happy holidays! (I hope you get there before New Years.)

By: Martha

Martha — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 19:20:22 +0000

Aw, Laurie, you love him. I hear what you’re saying and must admit there’s a good chance I’d think of it the same way if it was Figo instead of Zizou. I still think you’re letting him off easy, but I do get you.

And, yes, there’s something very sexy about a pissed-off footballer.

Also, have you seen the Zidane movie? You need to, obviously. Either way, this is probably the piece of writing of which I’m most proud (yes, even more proud than the post about the pope’s football team), and you’ll totally get it.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 18:47:05 +0000

You knew? Really? Dang. I thought I’d hidden it so well.

I hear what you’re saying, Martha. But I also see it more from a mom’s perspective. I have one child who is similarly driven and passionate. (Although fortunately slightly less impulsive.) He feels everything with 100% of his person. Even the bad things. He will be hugely successful because of this focus, but it could also be his undoing. Because when he FEELS, whatever he feels at that moment is all there is in the universe for him. And he wasn’t raised in the “mean streets of La Castellane.” (A phrase which appears in every single Zidane article you’ll ever read. Not that I’ve, y’know, read that many.)

I guess if I have a point, it’s that this was Zidane, every bit as much as the roulette and the gorgeous free kicks. You can’t separate the passion — both good and bad — from the person.

(In the immortal words of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, “There were many things in my youth that I’m not proud of… they were loose threads… untidy parts of myself that I wanted to remove. But when I pulled on one of those threads… I unravelled the tapestry of my life.”)

Maybe the miracle isn’t that it ended like this, but that he managed to channel that passion positively as much as he did.

Dang. Here I go again. That Bigger Meaning thing.

By: Martha

Martha — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 18:28:23 +0000

HA! Laurie, we had NO idea you felt that way. No, really.

I see no deeper meaning in the headbutt but am still just ranging angry about it, because by doing it Zizou left the team he was supposed to be leading out there to suffer without him. I just cannot get over that. (Try not to hate me for it, Laurie, but I lost a lot of respect for the man over it. I can’t help it, it’s the idealistic former coach and athlete in me, I think.)