Soccer player is a bad example

**Update 11/13/2009**
The following link (http://www.newsy.com/videos/soccer_violence_from_head_butts_to_hair_pulls) takes an in-depth look at the soccer game and the player's indiscretions through the coverage of multiple news sources. So in case you missed the rundown of what happened, here you go. It was provided by Newsy.com, a site that combines multiple news sources to analyze single events.

I really like to watch the highlights on ESPN and I really like it when they feature other sports that don’t get a lot of national recognition but what I don’t like is when those sports get the recognition for the wrong reason.

This was the case on Monday morning when I was watching my favorite sport clips from the weekend and came across this player from a women’s college soccer game. This player, Elizabeth Lambert, from New Mexico was involved in some vicious attacks on the field during a soccer game against Brigham Young University (BYU).

For whatever the reason Lambert’s actions were not all caught by the officials. The one they did view drew her a yellow card after she kicked the ball into another player’s face at very close range. Some of the other acts she committed were far worse than that and she got away with them.

One of those acts actually had her pulling the hair of her opponent and pulling the girl to the ground. The videos of these incidents were viewed all over the world and by Saturday morning the junior defender from New Mexico had been indefinitely.
Lambert made a public apology for her action.

“I let my emotions get the best of me in the heated situation,” Lambert explained. “I take full responsibility for my actions and accept any punishment felt necessary.”

I really want to know if that is enough. I mean this girl set back college soccer a few years with her actions. I have watched some crazy things in sports and seen some that were just as bad or worse than this. But the standards seem to be different for women’s sports than they are for the men.

I guess the reason this shocked me was the attention that it got from the media and the play it got on national shows. It almost seemed like maybe they should go and drug test the girl because she was not performing like any athlete would in their right mind.

Now that this has been said I want to say I don’t condone violence of this nature in any sport and that even includes hockey and wrestling. Players have to stay within the rules and guidelines presented to them.

No player coach or team should be aloud to be bigger than the game or more important than the rules. This incident does not set a good example for the younger players in any sport. I can only imagine if my daughter has seen this tape and now I would have to explain to her why this full-grown woman was seemingly crushing the player from BYU.

No thanks, I don’t think that job description of father and sports reporter allows me to be a commentator for WWE Wrestling.

Maybe I am wrong and maybe my opinion doesn’t really matter but I feel that this issue needs to be revisited and maybe looked into with an investigation. I am not ready to cross that bridge and how women’s athletics become like cage fighting. So hopefully when Lambert is older and more responsible she can sit down with her own children and explain to them what mommy was doing.