Some messages in my mailbox say, "Tell us briefly about the soccer world championship, especially the finals..." Two mails add, "What about Zizou's head-butting?"
My maternal grand mother called that fotbal. As to the 'head-butting', she probably was unaware of what it is , but had she watched the scene, what would she see? By the end of the last match of a lengthy championship, some exhausted players—Tiredness deprives man of his mind (Rev of Ares 35/8)—A fotbaler in white whose head struck a fotbaler in blue's breastbone (not that brutally, anyway; I used to see much more efficient blows in my childhood's brawls) and the fotbaler in blue pretending to fall under the impact, his eyes with the fitting look (dazed, very photogenic). The referee saw nothing, but the tattletales, maybe crafty fellows of the provoker (well, fobal is a show!) saw everything. The referee in a dramatic demonstration, with his arm imperially stretched out, sent the fotbaler in white to stand in the corner. My grandmother with her timid little bird voice (but there was a Ma Dalton side to her) would have said, "Is that all? But if the big boy has abused the little one, he deserves to be knocked senseless ('to know or club senseless' was her word). As she belonged in a generation when people did not make a whole lot of fuss about a broom shaft blow or a dust-up, she would have added, "That's a real tonic," in a tone meaning, "That keeps you in good health." But minutes ago I heard that (victim) Materazzi had thrice insulted the women of (agressor) Zidane's family. My grandmother would had said then, "That Italian deserved to be three times knocked senseless." As you can see, I was very badly brought up.
Only, the Creator has rehabilitated me in Ares, but he has likewise badly rehabilited me, because I like something in Zidane's head-butting—something unlike what my grandma would have liked, however—. I'm not referring to the violence: Zizou would have been better off pricking up the other ear to Materazzi's insults just as one'd better turn the other cheek, but the violence was very moderate, anyway, he was not foaming with rage and the 'victim' did not look as if he was in great pain. I'm referring to that freed side to him, to the man that freely chose his destiny. By his head-butting Zidane meant, "After all, this is just fotbal... I don't give a damn for the rules." A champion so thinking, that's great, isn't it? That man could be a great penitent, whose task is to give up a lot of principles. Zidane, the discultured football player! Don't be that surprised, therefore, if I tell you there's nothing to make a fuss about that head-butting.
As fotbal is a show, anyway, fotbal players have developed all of the tricks of the comedy trade.