The American Spectator

p> HONOR THY CULTURE br> Re: James Bowman’s Fighting Words : /p> p>Thank goodness someone has said exactly what I have felt all along about the now infamous head butt! I have played sports for most of my life and while there are insults hurled around on the field of play, they are usually not really personal. Usually they are comments about your ability, how you look, act, etc. but they generally do not cross over into attacks on family members or loved ones because this is generally seen as out of bounds. When you see fights in professional sports can almost always be traced to those boundaries being crossed. So I say good for Zidane, he should have done worse to a man that insults someone’s family to try to gain an edge in a soccer match. Every so often a man has to stand up and be a man, even if the wimps and wussies of the world cringe at the sight of a man reacting harshly to the unacceptable. br> — E.D. Edwards br> North Carolina /p>

James Bowman’s defense of Zinedine Zidane’s head butting in the World Cup final is very interesting, but flawed in several ways. In my opinion, it was very “wussy” of Zidane to let the Italian defender provoke him into an act that threw him out of the game, left his team one man short, and probably led to the defeat of his team. It is unfortunate that in the world of sports today, there is no honor on the field — anything goes, and you can say anything of you think it will give you an advantage over your opponent. A “manly” man would have not fallen for this cheap and very “wussy” ploy of verbal intimidation. A gentleman would have shown restraint, not ignoring the comments, but setting them aside for later defense of his honor. He would not have acted so recklessly, without concern for his team and, let’s face it, his country. The so-called honor society of much of the Islamic world, as described by Dr. Ahmed, involves impulsive, thoughtless, reckless and terrorist acts, and then hiding among the civilians for self-protection. This is neither honorable nor courageous, but instead, it is my very definition of cowardliness. Instead, Zidane should have used these insults to help motivate himself to kick Materazzi’s *** on the field, within the rules of soccer, thereby bringing honor and victory to his team and to his country. But, whether France won or lost, Zidane would be more than justified in confronting Materazzi and settling the matter after the game.

p>My other point of contention is that a gentleman would never strike an opponent without warning and without a chance for self defense. In my opinion, sucker-punching, or “sucker-butting,” is a cheap and dishonorable act. It is similar to the terrorist that blows up defenseless women and children civilians, but on a much lower level, of course, since it is not a murderous act (although a blow to the chest like that could have been fatal). If restraint during the game is not possible, then perhaps Zidane should have confronted Materazzi verbally on the field, challenging him to take his best punch at him. If Materazzi responded with the first punch, then Zidane could have attacked Materazzi in self-defense and it would have been excused as such. Materazzi would have been thrown out of the game. At worst, both would have been red carded, and the French team would not have been put at a disadvantage by Zidane. Showing some restraint during the game, so as not to put your team at a disadvantage, would have been the most difficult and most “manly” thing to do. Instead, Zidane was weak and a fool to fall for Materazzi’s cheap trick. Neither man deserves our respect. Now if you will excuse me, I have a few windmills to attack… br> — Mike Spencer