The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Trash talking has been in team sports for a long time. The exchange of words between France's Zinedine Zidane and Italy's Marco Materazzi is all major media outlets are talking about for soccer. It's overshadowed Italy's World Cup victory. In case you missed it, after Materazzi held onto Zidane's shirt, the Frenchman decided he wanted to know if it's possible to put his head through someone's chest. Okay, so that part isn't true, but he was making a statement. It's debatable whether Materazzi added dramatization to his fall, but it looked like Zidane gave him a good shot. Teams in the NFL might want to give him a tryout as he might be a good tackler Ð one with a temper. They might have to teach him not to use his head, though. The actual words that flew out of Materazzi's mouth are yet to be known. A lot of what has been reported is that Materazzi insulted Zidane's mother and sister. The Italian player admits to saying something to Zidane, but denies insulting his mother. So does that mean he did insult his sister? Zidane seems to be the only one being truthful because he chooses not to reveal what the Italian said. It could be because it's that bad and Materazzi isn't coughing it up. He likely doesn't want to be looked poorly upon throughout the world. It might be the least important fact in this trash talking soap opera, but what I fail to understand is why Materazzi would make such a bad remark to someone he seems to respect. Both TSN and Sportsnet's website ran stories from the Associated Press. Both quoted the Italian saying "Zidane 'has always been my hero.' I admire him a lot.'' Let's read that one more time. "Zidane 'has always been my hero.' I admire him a lot." So if he does, why did he disrespect him. When it comes to trash talking, it's something players do to get others off their game. It's hard to say whether that was the case as the incident happened at the 110 minute mark of extra time. There were only 10 minutes left before penalty kicks. When Materazzi let go of the Frenchman's shirt, the Italian was quoted on Sportsnet as saying, "He looked me up and down, arrogantly and said: `If you really want my shirt, I'll give it to you afterwards."' At the end of games, the players exchange jerseys. It's practically a customary action. What's interesting about all of this is that certain media outlets actually paid lip readers to decipher through the garbage and find out the real meaning. This might be the least important issue from the story, but it makes you wonder if there should be a watchdog for trash talking. Is there really a need for it in any sport? What is gained by that action? When it goes beyond telling a person that they suck or making fun of a missed opportunity, it's better that nothing is said.
