Unsportsmanlike behavior

Pub date July 10, 2006
WriterTim Redmond
SectionSF Blog

By Tim Redmond

The Chron picked up the New York Times story on the world cup, by Jere Longman, which includes this line:”star midfielder Zinedine Zidane was ejected in overtime for committing an astonishing act of unsportsmanlike behavior.” Longman later described the head-butt as “a flagrant abuse of any notion of fair play and perhaps permanently stained a soccer career that many considered to be the world’s pre-eminent of the past 20 years.”

I mean, hasn’t Longman ever been to a hockey game?? Or a real soccer game?

I wouldn’t give Monseiur Zidane any medals for sportsmanship, but come on. In the annals of sports history, this was pretty modest stuff.