Monday, November 9, 2009
You may have seen Elizabeth Lambert of the New Mexico women’s soccer team on ESPN this weekend. In case you missed it, it’s already immortalized on YouTube. It’s footage of Lambert, a junior defender for the Lobos, channeling her inner Bruce Lee during a game against Brigham Young University. After receiving a subtle elbow to the ribs from a BYU forward, Lambert responds by spending the rest of the game trying to inflict as much pain on the opposing team as possible. She recklessly takes out girls’ legs, throws a couple of punches while going up for headers, sends a nice little forearm shiver to a forward’s back, then caps it off by pulling down a BYU player by her ponytail when the ball isn’t even nearby.
The ESPN correspondent who presented the story had the same question as pretty much anyone who watched the video: What on earth is violence like this doing in women’s sports?
We’re all relatively used to guys losing their cool on the field. We’ve seen the endless replays of Oregon’s LeGarrette Blount going all MMA after playing Boise State and Florida’s Brandon Spikes trying to blind Georgia’s Washaun Ealey at the bottom of a pile, but in women’s sports? They don’t stoop to those kinds of dirty tactics, do they?
Sure, Lambert’s rampage was exceptionally stupid, but women are more than capable of this kind of violent retribution in sports. I’ve seen elbows thrown to faces when the play is halfway across the field, reckless tackles clearly meant to injure, and screaming players who have to be restrained from each other by teammates at the end of intense games. And that’s just from one season of watching Kansas soccer home games.
It’s especially easy for players to get away with this sort of thing in a sport like soccer where it’s impossible for four referees to watch all 22 players simultaneously. A little elbow to the back, or perhaps a ponytail takedown isn’t always seen if it’s done at the right time. Probably the most unbelievable thing about the New Mexico-BYU game is that Lambert received nothing more than a yellow card for her actions (although the team later suspended her indefinitely after reviewing the tape).
Remember Serena Williams’ tirade toward a line judge at the U.S. Open, complete with profanity and threats of death by tennis ball? Sure, it was just verbal abuse, but imagine if she got pissed behind a ref’s back on a soccer field instead of in front of thousands of spectators and dozens of TV cameras. You’d be lucky if your neck stayed attached when Serena yanked your ponytail.
This is sports, after all — sports get rough, and players get angry. If you’re an athlete getting frustrated in an intense game, causing pain to the nearest person wearing a different color is going to be a natural reaction.
But if you still don’t think women get violent in sports, that’s fine. I just wouldn’t recommend saying it within earshot of Elizabeth Lambert.
— Edited by Betsy Cutcliff
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