Bill's Bulletin Board
By Bill Rea

I only saw a bit of last Sunday's Wold Cup final on TV, sitting in a bar not far from my office in Bolton.

The game was close enough to be exciting, and the reaction from the patrons was entertaining too.

I was officially nonaligned, meaning it didn't matter a whole lot to me who won, but there was one long table in the middle of the bar floor that was occupied by obvious French supporters, and a slightly longer table paralleling it with Italian backers. Since this was the first and only segment of any of the matches in the entire tournament that I had seen, it was the reaction from the various tables, and who was waving what flag when that clued me in as to which team was wearing blue and which was wearing white.

As I said, I only saw part of the game. Thus I missed the climatic shoot-out. I also missed the infamous head-butt that French star Zinedine Zidane administered on the chest of his foe Marco Materazzi. But I have been reading and following some of the coverage that has accompanied this incident.

Personally, I think Zidane should grow up.

According to the accounts I'm familiar with, Materazzi made some remark or remarks, which might have been racist in nature, or involved members of the Zidane's family. Materazzi has denied saying anything racist or anything about Zidane's mother.

So it's hard to know who to believe, and since none of us were privy to the conversation, we'll never know for sure what was said.

What I'm wondering is what ever happened to the old adage, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me?"

There are those who might call me naive for clinging to such a concept, but that's a name that will never hurt me either.

I have always understood that accepting the fact that there are a certain number of louts in the world is part of the growing-up process. We all have to learn to live with idiots is our midst, be they teachers, bosses, editors, etc. And in my line of work, I have to encounter a lot of them. One cannot be the editor of a community newspaper which takes positions on things like sewers, subdivisions, etc. in a place like King Township without having to face a certain number of ticked-off people. You should see some of the e-mails that I receive that are not for publication, or the language used in some phone calls I've taken over the years. I have been subjected to threats of lawsuits and physical attacks, and called a whole host of names. I've had people call, write or e-mail my employers to make negative comments about me and demand that I be canned. The latest one was an email sent to my boss's daughter. It shouldn't come as any great surprise to the sender that I saw it, especially since I'm pretty sure I was the intended audience.

Garbage like this goes with the territory in which I work, and yes, I get a little angry when they occur. But I think of the source of these comments. And as I have often observed, if everyone suddenly started actually using their brains, there would be little need for newspapers and I would be out of work. Thus, I have a vested interest in the continuation and flourishing of stupidity, so I know how to deal with it.

As a top athlete who was good enough to play in the final match of arguably the biggest sporting event in the world, Zidane should have been familiar with dealing with verbal taunts from opponents, fans, the media, etc.

I believe what he was facing is commonly known as "gamesmanship." In the world of sports, athletes are often well-known for trying to unnerve their opponents with verbal jabs.

You boxing fans might want to harken back to that memorable night in October 1974, when Muhammad Ali took the title from George Foreman. You will recall that while the referee was giving the men their prefight instructions, Foreman was trying to stare down Ali while Ali's mouth was going a mile a minute. I'm willing to bet Ali was not commenting on the weather. I also once read an account that said the referee was furious at Ali's yapping, threatening to call off the fight if he didn't shut up. I don't think I believe that part. A ref who was seasoned enough to officiate a world title fight would certainly have known gamesmanship when he saw it.

This kind of stuff goes on in most sports, and just about at all levels. Those of you who regularly attend the local arenas in winter have seen such antics from some players (more frequently as they get older) coaches and even from parents. I still recall, with a certain amount of indignation, the incident a couple of years ago at a NobleKing playoff game when one loutish hockey mom was shouting insults from the stands. One of the local players made a gesture in response (not obscene or objectionable) and got sent off.

But he was a kid. What's Zidane's excuse?

If he was really that angry, he could have found some other way to blow off steam. He could have kicked something. Had he looked around, he might have found a very wellcrafted soccer ball,

approved for World Cup use, just waiting for somebody to give it a good swift one.

Verbal taunts and insults belong in the school yard, as far as the adult world is concerned. But as we all should have learned by now, if you want to witness adult behaviour, don't hang around adults. These things shouldn't occur and they are inexcusable when they do. The problem is they do occur, frequently. Usually there is some ignorant reason behind them, but on a sporting field, they are frequently part of the game. That doesn't make it acceptable in a societal sense, but not every part of reality is nice.

Baseball players are often seen on TV spitting out gobs of well-chewed tobacco (something I personally find revolting) or scratching themselves in places the viewing public would probably prefer not watching. And that kind of stuff isn't even part of the game.

Trying to distract an opponent or throw him or her off their game is part of the game, and many successful athletes are very good at it.

Other successful athletes know what it is and accept it as part of the game. And if they're big enough in their sport to make it to an event like the World Cup final, they should be big enough to ignore such guff for what it is.

Zidane should have been able to do that. Instead, he let himself lose control, and he let a lot of people who were depending on him down.