Leave Zidane Alone!

At first I was a little suprised to see an article from Dr. Z about the World Cup game. I have to admit I try to find time to read his columns on pro football just because I like the fact that he's different from what you read from almost anyone else. So of course I had to read his article about the Zidane blow up. I was actually suprised to see Dr. Z defending Zidane.


Dude his chest ran right into my head!

Everything else I've read has talked about how his legacy is now tainted and he missed his chance at greatness. You don't acheive greatness by one good game or even one good tournament, and I don't think you cease to be a great player, because you lost your head one time. The ESPN/ABC coverage has been horribly hypocritical (on top of just being horrible for the most part). They'll cry about the sins of diving for 15 minutes and then when, a "star" takes a fall a gets a call it suddenly become a good sale. Sorry to disappoint Marcello Balboa, but maybe you should go back to working on cars or whatever it is you do, when the national team isn't on TV(get a hair cut). Its still a dive even if its Ronaldinho, Henry, or Beckham. You can't call it a dive for Portugal and a part of the beautiful game, when its one of the media darlings. The same rule applys to Zidane's greatness. For the past 3 games its been almost sickening to listen to the commentators climb all over themselves to see who can praise Zidane the most. I was waiting for them to announce that he had been annointed to sainthood by the Pope. Now suddenly he gets mad as he has had a history of doing throughout his career, when he fells like the other team is taking cheap dives or playing dirty and he instantly goes from St. Zidane to some sort of demonic figure who will no doubt bring about the ruin of soccer as we know it.