So Italy takes it, after a World Cup final that had me shaking by the end. I was closing my eyes on every penalty kick. It's sad that such an exciting game had to be marred by this whole Zidane field-rage incident where he headbutted Materazzi. Of course, the papers today are full of "Materazzi must have said something realllllly bad"-type commentaries, and FIFA implicitly acknowledged that Zidane was provoked, I think, by giving him the MVP. But you know what? I don't care if you're provoked. You're a professional athlete, you're playing in probably the most important game of your life, and you're paid gazillions of Euro to keep your temper. Whatever Materazzi said, he also said in the heat of the moment. But pros should know to let cooler heads prevail. So there's no excuse, as far as I'm concerned. OK, Materazzi said SOMETHING nasty, for sure, although he is denying he called Zidane a terrorist. Whatever. Zidane doesn't have the shinest record when it comes to being aggressive during games (he headstomped somebody in 1998). Just because he's retiring doesn't mean you give him the goddamn MVP when he's red-carded in the final and lets down his team. It was unprofessional. End of story. And it's detracting from what was a real victory for Italy.

Play the Zidane head-butting video game here.