For more than a week now the nation has been gripped in a debate about “sportsmanship, gender roles, double standards regarding aggressiveness and news media coverage and the sexualized portrayal of female athletes” thanks to the hairpull heard ’round the world sayeth the New York Times. And now, the Old Gray Lady plays Cecille B. Demille to Lambert’s Norma and gives her a close-up on The NY Times homepage.
Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem?
So, is The NY Times just playing the irony card or is it part of the problem it claims is going on with female sports? The NY Times has a nice soft-focus glamour shot to go with its soft-focus feature on the front page on female athletes.
Read the article, although if you have read one athlete apology story you have read them all. This one is no different. Regret, shock, it’s part of the game, the editing made it look bad, I am seeking help for my issue, I will volunteer to teach little kids what I have learned, it was the ref’s fault…somebody alert me when there is a new apology script. Though, the video editing excuse is somewhat novel, a cousin of the misquoted/out of context excuse.
Ms. Lambert was overzealous in her actions during an intense post-season game, she deserves a break, not a maelstrom drummed up by the media. She should not have to see a psychologist to discover what is wrong with her just because she got carried away in one game. It’s not like she charged into the stands and decked a fan.
It’s the media’s kneejerk response to stuff like this: let’s “get inside” the issue, make it larger, find other examples, try to draw conclusions, etc.
Also kinda boring. We’ve had our laughs, and we all need to move on. I’m sure Ms. Lambert doesn’t want to spend the rest of her life apologizing.
Who reads the NY Times for the articles?
@JT but she likes the publicity!
Lambert’s apology is weak because it’s not really necessary.
1) She’s a woman collegiate amateur athlete playing a (sadly) niche sport. She had no reason to expect that anyone, anywhere would see what she did; this was just a regular game for her, so any bulls**t about “being a role model” shouldn’t really apply. She had no reason to think that anyone outside of the handful of people at the game (women’s college soccer’s probably not a big draw; I’m assuming maybe 250-500, tops?).
2) Outside of the hair pull and the punch, the rest of that was pretty much par for the course aggressive play that you’d expect out of guys. The punch half included. The hair pull should’ve been a card, definitely, but it wasn’t…and I know that I personally have committed fouls when playing that I should’ve been carded for. It doesn’t mean I’ve got an anger management issue; it just means that I hard fouled a guy.
3) No guy would’ve been suspended (beyond a red card suspension) for the rest of their natural born life for that.
Magnakai: Agreed. She’s being punished because her incident got publicity not because it was all that noteworthy, same thing happened to Lagarette Blount from Oregon, in my opinion.
I think our collective response of digging her is much more progressive than all these pearl-clutchers who got the vapors over a woman being aggressive. Well, maybe just somewhat more progressive but still, f**k those idiots.
“I’m sorry I got everyone’s collective panties in a bunch because I didn’t conform to your outdated notions of gender norms. I’m sorry you blew this up into a much bigger deal than it was. I’m sorry you’ll now have to explain to your precious, innocent children that sports are physical and sometimes people act in ways that are regrettable. But mostly, f**k you.”
Sincerely Elizabeth Lambert
/What she shoulda said
If liking a woman who likes to get stuck in is wrong, I don’t ever want to be right.
And furthermore, MH, it’s on the ref for not controlling play. The sliding tackle Lambert pulled about halfway through the highlights (from behind, directly into the opponent’s knee and not the ball) was a definite yellow, if not red, offense, but Lambert didn’t get carded until much later in the match. So if the ref is going to let that play go, the players are certainly going to test the limit of the game.
@Goat — your apologize hits the issue on the head. If this was a guy, he’d be “tough”, “determined”, or “gritty” (or some other stupid adjective pundits use to descibe american football players). But it’s a girl and girls don’t act that way. Girls are nice little social butterflies who wear dresses, always say ‘please and thank you’ and blah f**king blah. The outrage is not about the acts themselves, but that they were perpetrated by a female.
Ironically, I find some of the biggest cheap shot artists in my rec league to be the girls. Yes, I got kneed in the balls once by a girl.
*YAWN*
I wish this would die already so I can go back to not giving a crap about women’s soccer.
Liz, honey. Cash in. Not sure how you do it, but the clock is striking 14.
@PR: she would lose her eligibility. i was thinking the same thing last night…a maxim spread, then maybe playboy but she would lose her amateur status.
She probably lost her amateur status on Prom night.
Hey-O!
So, is this now a rumor about an alleged Lambert sex tape?
@Keith: Agreed. If you DON’T play physical with that kind of ref, you’re going to get hurt. And when physical play is allowed and the game’s close, it very quickly escalates into punching/ponytail pulling stuff.
Frankly, I’m surprised her coach hasn’t come out and stood up for her.
Hands up those who played football and have at one time in their lives done something like hit back a player that hit them first or elbowed someone in the nose while going for a header and regretted it right after?
None of you ever had a stupid red card?
I was pretty respectful player who played hard, id tackle you hard and give a hand up. Some nationalities like the english and germans would reciprocate, tear our ankles out and then invite us for a beer while the latins, italians, portuguese, arab and haitian would treat every encounter as an affront to them, their masculinity and their mother.
A couple of dirty elbows or the popular south american and arab habit of showing their fingers up your ass (hoping to provoke you into striking them) and I have done some really evil s**t to guys and was never carded for it.
Ive had guys cuss my mother for 30mins straight until I kneed one directly on the inside of the knee.
Ive had enough of a chilean ass grab that I spent 45mins just torturing the guy on the field (i switched with our stopper and shadowed the guy), he went nuts, took off after the ref, histeam joined in pummelling the officials and their fans joined in.
6 police cars later, I felt no remorse. If you were to put your finger in my ass anywhere else but the soccer field, you wouldnt be breathing.
But those were extreme cases and not unlike what you will see at every level of football, dirty and vicious players with no conscience abound. Snivelling worms who feel emboldened when in numbers are everywhere. Football seems to attract more than fair play minded athletes.
There are a lot of a**holes out there and many play ball.
The hard fouls she cause were not dramatically different from we all have seen (although all in the same match is impressive) and the hair tug while surprising for male players who were never offered such an obvious target was probably less dangerous than some of the other clumsy fouls she made.
As she gets older, she will learn how to get her revenge in more subtle ways. I learned that from a NASL player but saw others use similar craftier and less conspicuous tactics.
Any half competent ref would have already had yellow carded her a couple of times because of her clumsy, barely concealed and recklessly dangerous tackles.
Watching her reminds me of a young labrador we used to have, especially when it got a young age where it was almost fully matured in size but still behaved and moved clumsily like a puppy.
If youre gonna be a hard player, you just have to less obvious about it. Notice the forward how she sneakily does it. THAT’s the sign of a good player.
Lambert’s only crime is really that.
6 years ago before Youtube and this wasnt a story.
Still isnt. Girl pulls anothers hair.
Geez, if thats all it takes, there are full of those afterschool beatdown videos of girls kicking the snot out of some defenseless chick.
The last paragraph best explains this non-story.
And this analysis was spot on.
Its the first time Ive read something memorable since Ive recently come here.
You just moved up on my ‘websites to visit’ bookmarks.
@ned flanders: you mean the Colleen Rooney perineum post wasn’t memorable?
You all love it so much, I hope you have it bookmarked.
http://unprofessionalfoul.com/2009/11/12/thursday-backpasses-four-guys-kept-on/
Elizabeth Lambert is a junior at the University of New Mexico, and plays for their soccer team the Lobos originally from California (too bad for California). So, this loser knows they are going in to a game that they will most likely lose and since they do not have the talent to score they resort to this kind of play, it has very minor thought to it than let’s say passisng the ball through your opponents defense and scoring a goal.
The other issue is the where were the referees, were they all older white men with their tongues out, enamored and unable to call the game objectively (this game had so many penalties that did not get called), I mean what are they getting paid to do. Who has paid these guys off? Do we have to change the game where only women referees can call women games. After watching the video someone was paid off, that is my conclusion.
And Lizzy, watch you back and please stay out of soccer (you real should be banned, the game does not need people like you in it), so many will be gunning for you now. Who knows maybe you were just drumming up business for your “Occupational Therapy practice”, yah good luck with that, I doubt your bed side manner is any different from your sportsmanship.
^ Ladies and gentlemen, the entire membership of the BYU Women’s Soccer Booster Club!