Elizabeth Lambert, a 20 year-old UNM soccer player has been getting huge news coverage due to her unsportsmanlike, violent conduct during a conference tournament game against BYU. She elbowed a BYU player in the stomach, punched one in the back, kicked one in the stomach, slapped one in the face, kicked the soccer ball in another players face, and even yanked one to the ground by her hair. Lambert has apoligized and expressed deep regret for her actions. She also mentioned the idea that she has been targeted because she is a female athlete, which I believe to be true. It doesn't excuse anything she has done, but I think there is definitely merritt behind her statement. Take, for instance, the amount of fights and violence that take place in men's sports. They are not called monsters and nobody suggests that they should be taken off the team or even suspended like in the case of Elizabeth Lambert. What about the football players that deliberately try to injure opposing players in order to gain an advantage? I have known tons of ex-football players, high school and collegiate that have tried purposely to injure another player, or have started a fight on the field, yet it doesn't draw attention, at least not as much as the Lambert incident has. These football players elbow eachother in the face, step on eachother, and try deliberately to seriously injure one another. For example, Albert Haynesworth, a former Tenessee Titans defensive lineman turned Redskin was expelled from a game after an attempt to stomp on a Dallas players face, leaving him with a severely swollen eye and stitches. Did people call him a monster? No. Did people say that he should never be allowed to return to the game? No. There are countless incidents like this that occur in mens' sports on a daily basis, including soccer. Not only do american football players injure eachother deliberately, so do european football players, its just a little less obvious.
PS: if you compare the comments below the videos, they will tell you the way americans feel about male and female violence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1nCHVINrGU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC-pF3OHY1c
Well Past Her "Sell By" Date.
14 years ago
I agree that she got more publicity since she is a female athlete. She did do much wrong and even though she apologized I don't think she entirely meant it. She did not have an ounce of emotion of caring what she was doing to those other girls. She knew the apology had to be done to keep her place on the team, but she did have more pressure on her from the public then she should have. She looked like she was seriously mad and she was going to take out anyone in her way. I do hear of some male sport fights, but they are usually only spoken of once then forgotten. I feel that male fighting in sporting events have just become so common that when it happens it is not interesting anymore. Which doesn't make it fair to women athletes because when they do slip up like Lambert did, they get scrutinized for weeks!
ReplyDeleteI read those comments under the videos and it was quite disturbing... all of the comments on the girls video revolved around sex and having her in bed, where the male video they just challenged the masculinity of the players. Shows you how much media has affected the minds of America and not in a good way. If you haven't read them I suggest you do.