Thirty Three Jones | Desktop Site
Now I know most of you reading this weren't into the World Cup at all, but my favorite football (er..soccer) player just disgraced himself and I think this merits some discussion. Don't worry, though, the World Cup is now over and you can rest assured this is in all likelihood the last time you'll have to read a post on this site about soccer until 2010.
For those who haven't been keeping up with it, France and Italy met in the finals of the World Cup last night. In front of a television audience of 1.1 billion viewers, the star of the French team, Zinedine Zidane, completely lost his mind and headbutted an Italian Player (Materazzi) in overtime. In the final game of his career, one of the greatest players in the history of the World Cup was ejected and France ultimately lost 5-3 in penalty kicks.
There really aren't any historical parallels to this in American sports. It would be like Michael Jordan punching Bryon Russell in game 6 of the NBA Finals and getting thrown out by the refs, or maybe if Tiger Woods brained Phil Mickelson with his 3-iron on the 18th hole of the Masters.
Here is the video of Zidane's headbutt.
Before the headbutt, Materazzi gave Zidane a nipple tweak and early reports say that Materazzi made a racial slur towards the French team in the lead-up to it, but this was probably the single dumbest act by a great player I've ever seen in any sport. All Zidane had to do was keep his head together for 10 more minutes and then he could go assault the dude after France had won the World Cup. Instead, he had to watch France's defeat from the locker room and he was not even allowed back on the field for the final awards ceremony.
Materazzi has had a history of dirty plays, however, and I had to laugh when it first happened. Had Zidane gotten away with it -- and if it wasn't for the instant replays that the refs watched, he probably would have -- I have to admit I would have applauded him for it. Check this out:
A collection of Materazzi's cheap shots with a Tupac soundtrack.
I tried to think of a similar example in hip hop, where an artist's blunder caused his fall from grace. The closest I could come up with was R. Kelly, who went from the top of the game with "I Believe I Can Fly" to a national joke after this video surfaced. Its not quite the same -- Zidane didn't do anything illegal and will probably be forgiven. Yet, at the very least, Zidane has cost himself millions in potential endorsement deals.
Maybe the situation is more like Mobb Deep, who tarnished their street image by becoming the waterboys of G-Unit after years of putting out classic albums on their own. Despite all of the great songs they have put out over their careers, the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of them is the cameo in 50 Cent's Window Shopper. Not a good look for them at all.
For today's track, I'm putting up a song from the French rap group L'Ecole Du Crime ("Crime School") featuring Mobb Deep, which I grabbed from ohword.com:
Mobb Deep and L'Ecole Du Crime
If you're interested, you can read more about Zidane here, which talks about the problems he faced growing up as an Algerian in France. Also, check out this highlight video of Zidane, with an Obie Trice soundtrack.
Unrelated video of the day: Tupac's new joint featuring Dave Chappelle.
7/12/2006 8:39:27 AM posted by Fresh