Reply #77: There is more to it than just the name calling incident...

[noops]

Materazzi was playing Zidane to death. Zidane hurt his shoulder about 10 minutes before this incident by guess who? Also, Zidane was fouled inside the penalty box and there was no call (very frustrating!). Also, several other French players were abused by Materazzi during the match.

I think what Zidane did was a cumulation of his angry sentiments towards Materazzi and was also a general indication of how most of the French players felt towards that player.

While the head butt is still an egregious act and i do not condone it, I applaud Zidane for putting his team above himself in this circumstance.