NYT: Nearly two weeks later, the University of New Mexico soccer player Elizabeth Lambert said she still could not fully explain what led her to yank an opponent from Brigham Young down by her ponytail in what has become a highly publicized incident of violent behavior.
Article Source: NBC Sports
from:NBC Sports'I have so much regret,' N.M. soccer player says
Seeded on Wed Nov 18, 2009 12:04 AM EST (NBC Sports)
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Maybe she shouldn't play soccor while PMS'ing!!!
How dare her play the "female" card! Bullying is bullying no matter the gender. I would bet money that the girls on the opposing teams she played in high school would tell you she's been doing this for a long, long time. She obviously has not taken responsibility for her actions, typical bullying behavior.
ok when the girl punched her in the back..I SAW..the girl in white elbow her in the boob...so um..a little justification here..on the pony tail pull I saw the girl pull on her shorts..so then came the pony tail pull...the girl in white isn't totally innocent..people need to look at the whole video..not just the girl in red.
"I have so much regret", she says. No, you have anger management issues.
Get some psychiatric help before you kill someone.
What bull. That's an orchestrated response, written by a publicist. This game is getting worse & worse, and she just took it too far. This is the fault of parents who encourage vengeance on the field and rough play.
Sorry, but this is not something to be snickered at. Regret...crap. She is a classic example of the ME, ME, ME world. Win at all costs, do ANYTHING to make yourself stand out...all for profit. Then apologize and it's all okee dokee. This is no longer a country of taking the "high road".
kacky, you have a major point in your comment. My son played soccer as a youth and left the sport at the age of 13/14 because of the yelling and screaming by coaches and parents to win at all costs. He had played for fun and it wasn't fun anymore.
I can't help but wonder why folks wonder when things like this happen after years of encouragement to play rough and win, yes, even the girls.
The other side is, the player needs to take responsibility for her own actions and learn a bit of self-control.
Those of us who have competed in high-pressure sports contests should understand that these things happen. This young woman should be held responsible, but not locked away as a sociopath, fer Pete's sakes.
In high school, I was the anchor-leg runner on a relay team. I had a beef with my coach, and after I crossed the finish line (at the end of a poor performance), I tossed the baton at him. He promptly kicked me off the team. I still regret it. But truthfully, it seemed to happen before I even realized it was happening. It sounds like this player experienced something similar.
So ease up on the blame game. This girl made a bad mistake, and she'll probably regret it forever. I can sympathize.
She regrets getting caught. New Mexico played a dirty game and the coach should be the one catching heck..., apparently the players learned well.
Ya, let's just ignore it....it's o.k., honey, it just happened once.....
Crone -
I know, everyday I hear this American or that American talk about raping people they think have done something wrong and throwing them in a ditch; it's so prevalent. I don't think it's so much that people disagree that this statement was sick and vicious, rather I think people might have a problem with your sweeping generalizations. I, myself as an American, have no desire to see anybody raped and thrown into a ditch; I find the premise somewhat sick and vicious. I also have no problem "flaming" an individual that tries to draw a vague correlation between Americans in general and some douchebag's derogatory comments. Consider yourself flamed.
crone,
"Americans are inredibly vicious"??? ...... Have you seen European or Latin American soccer crowds or rugby crowds? Now those are vicious, unruly, violent people. Do you ever see rioting at NFL, NBA, Baseball games???? No you dont. So before you make blanket judgements about Americans and how violent we are you better look in your own back yard you ingnorant scum!
Crone,
You are essentially correct in your statements. I remember when Sarena Williams yelled at a lines person in a tennis match. She said she wanted to kill the lines person for making a bad call. That is an example of the invocation of violence to solve a problem, but the comments from white Americans were many times more violent and racist. She was called a monkey, gorilla and many other racist names. When a black person, or Muslim or Hispanic commits an act such as this, the commentary is a great deal worse on blogs.
It's not just whites either. Blacks will gladly join in to disparage Hispanics and Muslims. We have serious issues with violence and violent ideation in America and we need to address it as a whole people. and national polity, or it will tear us apart.
Collier
She is only sorry because she got caught on TAPE that aired on ESPN!!! Maybe she is a wonderful person, but she should never put on another College soccer jersey again!!!
She intentionally tried to injure those people. I think that someone should file criminal charges against her for assault!!! Then we will see how sorry she really is!!!
Her Coach should be fired too for not pulling her out of the game.
Lambert is a HACK!!!
This is sport and if they don't want things like this to happen the refs must be more diligent(watch the whole film she is taking abuse also) they can not let things get to this level. Coaches also share a responsibility, if they sense a player is getting frustrated they must pull the player and let them calm down. If the coach acts as if he/she does not knowthis is happening they are lying or just a really bad coach. This kind of stuff happens in every sport and should not be tolerated, that being said, to act as if this is one bad apple is unfair and not honest.
Collier -
And blacks will disparage whites. And hispanics will disparage blacks, whites and muslims. And muslims will disparage blacks, whites and hispanics. And we'll all join in to disparage purple people. The fact is, when somebody of prominence, whether white, black, hispanic, muslim or purple, makes a fool of themselves on national television, certain individuals will come out of the woodworks and say nasty things. If you are referring to comments you read hear on Newsvine about Williams, how do you know the posts were not from a hispanic person or a muslim or an asian or an Inuit or an aboriginee. What you have just exhibited is a tendency to racially profile; an inherently racist tendency (so says society). Race baiters are racists themselves and I can't stand racists from any race.
Crone -
Let's stop using the word 'flame' in any of its conjugative forms. Also, I don't like the word 'poop'. Those crimes that occurred in Abu Graib (It is exceedingly difficult to feel sorry for the embarrassment of terrorists, however) were punished as were those responsible for the rape of that 14 year old. Like any society, we have our share of sickos and wackjobs, however that is a rare exception, not a general rule. There are governments in Africa and the middle east where it is legal to stone or behead an individual for adultery. There are countries around the globe that imprison and beat their citizens if they express the mildest dissent. There are countries where people still get their hands chopped off for stealing food to feed their starving families. There are countries where men show their dominance by raping women. You come on here and denounce America because of a very few nutcases who obviously attract media attention. You are generalizing far more than you know which is so very very foolish. When something tragic occurs and it is perpetrated by an American, the VAST majority of Americans denounce that action just as you denounce the the entire country. Feel free to hate America, we don't much care for people like you anyways.
Someone needs to remind Ms. Lambert that she is NOT the victim here, she is the perpetrator. She also cannot bad-mouth the officiating for not making calls (hello?!? Ms. Lambert would have been red carded had the officials done so) and in the same breath claim that the "rough stuff" is all part of the game. Lastly, and like many others have said... playing the sexist card?!? really?!? Nice try, but no sale.
It seems that most of the posters here need a life, and an education about the way sports are allowed to be played. This girl went over the line and got caught on tape. But a review of the whole game shows that there was a lot of other "contact" going on that should not have been allowed, and it was more than just her. And this is typical of so many sports today, particularly the "non-contact" ones, like soccer, and basketball. Cheating isn't new, nor is retaliation. And I've seen it encouraged - even taught - by coaches. I was taught how to grab a player's jersey without the ref seeing it over 40 years ago.
This stuff goes on all the time, and it's up to the refs to control the games. Some do, some don't. Players get really frustrated when refs don't control it well, and some lose it. Some players do it for just that reason: they bait and goad the opposition into getting caught retaliating, trying to gain an advantage. It's somewhat analogous to the steroid catch-22: if the other guy is doing it, and getting an edge, and I don't do it, I am at a disadvantage. Yeah, it's wrong, but how else do I compete? I suppose if we just asked everyone to play fair and by the rules it would all be OK.
In the meantime, stop overreacting to these incidents. React appropriately, but don't overreact. She's not a monster, she's a player who lost her cool and reacted very badly. She should suffer appropriate consequences. And other players and coaches should be held accountable as well.
Languishing,
Well Said!
So, do you rocket scientists think that posts in these stupid boards represent Americans as a whole? If you think that, you need to get a life....
She's right. Sexism fueled most of the attention toward her. Vinnie Jones was and is lionized for the type of dirty play she engaged in. Sports Illustrated once put Kevin Gogan on their cover for being the dirtiest player in the league. Professional hockey will never outlaw fighting.
Apparently, competitiveness boiling over into scrapping is a lot more acceptable if you've got a Y chromosome.
Also, this type of stuff is part and parcel of the beautiful game for both genders. Watch sometime.
tyler
it is good to see you.
we can only hope that professional hockey will not outlaw fighting. as far as this case goes, soccer is a contact sport and can be rough, but she took it a bit too far. she needed to be punished for her actions and she was.
Crone and friends,
It's not that American's are insane, its just about sad people that get a thrill from making irrational and inflammatory comments from behind the veil of this medium. They can write in anonymity without the that someone might confront them. The ones that are the worst are the ones that have convinced themseles that anything they say really matters. Its the only feeling of power they ever have.
Hey, 800 lb. gorilla. She should have been red-carded during the game, I think. Suspending her afterwards - indefinitely, I believe - seems like overkill to me. Seeing her suspended for the first few games next year would be appropriate to me.
She had three different red cards coming in that game. Why did she do it? Because she's a little bitch who can't control her anger. She needs to be tossed. No self-respecting team would want her.
Hey, University of New Mexico ----- Pull her scholarship and throw her out of school. The same goes for ANY player exhibiting such behavior. Caught up in the "physical demands" of sporting events IN NO WAY condones such actions. This type of disgusting behavior has been an outgrowth from the continually sliding line of permitted, condoned, even encouraged trash talking and lack of respect for your teammates, your opponents, your school affiliation, for your sport. Alas, it appears that sportsmanship has abandoned almost all sports; professional, collegiate, even our youth activities. How sad for us all.
great post!
Wow! I am so glad you are out there!
I never saw what you have described. Not that it justifies her actions ... but then again a player has to show an opponent they are not going to continue to take physical abuse from that player, particularly when the officials don't see the infraction or penalize the opposing team for the foul.
I wonder why the news channel didn't explain what you just explained. It really is sad when the news will pick up in the middle of a story and not fully show all of the facts. Because of this, I was ready to really let this woman have it. But after reading your post, I couldn't do that.
You have to admit this woman is serious, when it comes to payback.
She does not fool around.
Wow! I am so glad you are out there!
I never saw what you have described. Not that it justifies her actions ... but then again a player has to show an opponent they are not going to continue to take physical abuse from that player, particularly when the officials don't see the infraction or penalize the opposing team for the foul.
You have to admit this woman is serious, when it comes to payback.
tyler
indeed, she should have been red-carded, but the officials blew it. she is now being punished rather severely. perhaps, if officials had done their job previously, then it would never have gotten this far.
It was a soccer game that got out of hand because the referees didn't give out cards adequately. This happens at every level of soccer when things get heated... for more proof see Zidane in World Cup 2006.
And you guys don't understand officiating. They can't see everything, and when you eject a player you come under intense scrutiny. The coaches have all the power in college sports, and an official who gets to many coaches upset with him gets blackballed.
The video of the two players going at each other was hysterically funny! I laughed so hard when I saw it. I think the two girls got caught up in the competition of the game and it got a little rough so I am not sure what the outrage is about. I played basketball and we used to throw elbows and knees at each other all the time. I left every game with bruises that's just competition.
Someone who throws an elbow should get punched in the spine? And if you make bodily contact and she grabs your shorts, you should then break her neck? COME ON. And what about the girl who took a one-two punch to the front and back of her head? Did she deserve that?
Everyone please watch the film again. You will see that she had her hands pulling on and in the front of her shorts. I don't play soccer but?
Like anything in life, business, politics, war, and now even sports, we seem to have become infested with people of low and mean spirit that would cheat, steal, fraud, and about anything else in an attempt to guarantee a win. Lying ex-presidents, vice-presidents, executives, bankers, federal officials, etc, all set bad examples for our young to follow. It seems that once precedence is set that all want in on the dirty action. Innocence lost.
She should be barred for life from playing in any sports at any level.
Yeah concerned you obviously don't play sports either....
There's no excuse..Ooh...she had her shorts pulled...Well then pull her shorts back....
She's a dirty player and it's not the first time she's played this way.....
I don't play soccer either; but this is just plain BULL SH$$$$$$!! Contact from the other team was NOT intentional, WAS NOT premediated, it was simply contact when two people head for the same object.
This girl is just calling the blatant hair pulling a 'regret'. This 'girl' has major deep ceded anger issues and does NOT belong in a contact sport or on any field! She's just passing blame where it does not exist.
She has issues and NEEDS counseling NOT a soccer scholarship! No sport should tolerate this behavior. The fact that she even made it to the college level is appalling!
Lambert, wake up and smell the coffee. You need to work on the entire behavior not just one instance that you decide is regretable. The regret is that you've been caught, made public, and NOW are sufferring the consequences! The regret should be of your whole behavior and demeanor not just the single incident that revealed your true nature.
Soccer is a strange and vicious sport. Violence is escalating. This girl needs to be made the poster child for violence and the punishment must be expulsion from socceron her current team and any team she thinks she'd like to play for.
That would be an unduly harsh punishment. I've seen the likes of this at many soccer matches at the college level, perhaps less blatant, but women's soccer is a rougher sport than most people imagine.
Not that that condones the actions, just the punishment is you suggest is ridiculous.
I'm so tired of the rules of engagement in contact sports being different for men and women. The same thing happend at a women's ice hockey match - the moment it looked like they were going to throw down, the ref went nuts. This does not happen in men's ice hockey, hell everyone cheers when the blood bounces on the ice. It sounds as though Lambert recognizes that she may have been out of line, isn't the the first step? It does sound like she was definately not the only participant in the rough play, but she got caught and now she's paying for it with her whole season down the drain. Same thing goes for the Williams tennis player, I don't even like her all that much, but she behaved the same way John McEnroe has historically, but gets treated like she's the anti-christ. Get over it, women are just as competitive as men in contact sports, if they want to knock each other over let them! What should really scare folks is the male response that this poor girl received, there's something really wrong with that, but no one seems to be addressing that poor behavior.
Oh please. Bad sports(wo)manship is just that ... bad behavior period and her very behavior purchased what she deserves.
What a crock of crap..
Amen to that! I agree. Her getting two yellow cards in her two previous games says it all - this is one mean, dirty player. To get a yellow card in soccer is pretty bad, I'd say it's equivelant to two technical fowls in basketball or two personal fowls in football.
I lay this completely at the feet of the referee of that game. He obviously let this game get way out of control. After watching the complete video of the game there should have been yellow cards flying all over that field.
The blame should go to the Coach AND Lambert! This is most likely not a singular event. She's too quick to pull the punches and most likely was getting away with it most of her soccer career.
There are way too many talented, deserving players in this sport. Lambert is done, give someone with talent AND sportsmanship the field.
Soccer is not ice hockey and violence is violence. Picture someone dragging Palimalu down by his hair and see what would happen. Women wanted the same status as men....now they have it and must take the consequences.
If Palimalu (sp?) has the ball, then it is perfectly legal to tackle him by the dread-locks. This has been covered by football commentators numerous times. You cannot cannot grab the helmet or facemask and cannot pull someone down by their collar ("horse-collar").
The referee made some huge mistakes this game. At least two of her tackles should have been red cards. They were vicious and she didn't touch the ball. So don't play the gender card as in most mens soccer games those would have been red cards. I understand the elbow and the hair pull may have been away from the ref's view but those two tackles were red cards. Easy calls (especially the one where she swung her arm down to punch her opponent.
Palimalu does not have dreads, he just has long beautiful hair. That is why he is now doing shampoo commercials! And chances are if some one drag him down by the hair he would jump up go at them.
This incident reminds me of the Florida Vs Georgia Football game a couple of weeks ago. Florida's star linebacker Brandon Spikes got caught on tape jabbing through a Georgia players face mask, he was suspended for a game. Everyone seemed to be calling for his head which may have been warranted, except for the fact that he had already had his helmet ripped off his head twice at that point in the game. He also had to exit the game twice to rinse his eyes after what appeared to be Georgia players going for his eyes. When you watch the tape of that game the refs are not controlling the dirty play and it was completely out of hand on both sides, with players li8ke Spikes being targeted viciously. Brandon Spikes is a big star and to catch him on tape doing something of this magnitude was huge press, but he was not alone and both teams and their coaches should have been fined by the SEC and the NCAA. We shoot these games from many different angles these days and if the NCAA really wanted to crack down on this BS they would be reviewing tapes after games and fining programs and coaches.
Maybe she can't explain it, but I can. She's a jerk.
This type of action has no place in sports or life. She's a bully with deep seated mental issues. She needs to be banned from sports and required to seek mental health assistance.
She's right about one thing. This incident will haunt her for the rest of her life.
She's sorry it got noticed
I respectfully disagree. I think she wanted to be noticed....Octomom, Balloon boy, etc
I wonder if this girl is related to Jack Lambert the retired Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker? He was a maniac on the field. In all seriousness though, seeing other video of the game you can tell it was a very physical game and she lost her mental cool. At the college level of play, she should have the mental toughness to play hard and clean. I'm happy to see she seems truly remorseful and is following through with steps to get back on track and play again.
Elizabeth- it is a GAME- not life and death- not even close-
She should be barred from ever playing again- too many elite athletes get away with violent behavior-in every sport. They just set an example that "look at me, I get paid millions to play a GAME , commit assault and battery and get up and do it all over again the next week.
6 deleted, weird race derail from Chris 5759. Cut it out.
They are always sorry after they get caught. This "woman" is a bully and shouldn't be allowed to play again. That's the only way this kind of behavior will be curtailed.
This woman's story is nonsense, and playing the gender card is insulting to the rest of us with eyes. She has an "explanation" for every one of the hard fouls she is shown committing during this one game (and who knows how many others there have been), but what I see isn't a string of individual cases of losing one's composure but a calculated pattern. She's a thug and should be barred from playing college sports.
A lot of this hostile and aggressive action starts when kids are in Little League. Forget "It's not if you win or lose, it's how you play the game"; it's "Go out there and whatever it takes WIN" coming from parents. Where else do you hear about a father shoot a coach in Little Leage, or ugly words from parents directed at players on the opposite team. I am not defending Ms. Lambert either, but she's a 20-year old college student and should have more sense and self-control by now.
Scrabble anyone?
"So much regret" eh??? I'll fill in the blank: That she got caught on tape!
I agree with others that she should not be allowed to play until they find a cure for her condition.
Meanwhile, I think she should be serving time as a mascot in a hot suit to help her expend all that energy. She can beat herself up.
Watching it closely, you can see the team in white elbow her the first time, then try to hold onto her shorts the 2nd time. I suspect there was more and it built up in frustration. She over reacted, clearly, but I can see why and how. Fouls should have been called on the elbowing and it wouldn't have escalated.
Fouls are missed in every soccer game, but yeah, the refs should have taken control much earlier.
What a nasty human being. First she hits her in the throat, which she is really lucky that did not do damage to the young lady. Then punches her in the back and then she yanks her neck back by grapping her ponytail.
What a fine specimen to show our children and to teach them how NOT to play with others.
She is a hateful person. She is going to be banned from any additional sports, isn't she??????????????????????????????
13 deleted, Dragonwagon5 calling Lambert a 'dike', whatever that is. Presumably, you were going for traditional gay slur dyke. Cut it out.
Sorry tyler,
'dyke' won't pass the MSNBC spell checker.......(but you knew that, right?)
Strange, very strange. She almost looks like she wasn't aware what she was doing. "A ponytail? Let's get that out of my way, I don't care what's attached to it. And off I go, there's a ball somewhere over there"
I would hate myself for getting so involved in a ball game. Maybe someone should introduce her to the word "fair" and remind her that it's a GAME!
ALL the sports today are no longer filled with sports men or women playing just to succeed for the love of the game, ....They are mostly violent exchanges, made by steroids and drugs induced people, who are HELL bent on succeeding in these top moneyed sport competitions...
We are now a liberal panty waist nation at the moment. If she is sorry, she is forgiven, we should do the same thing for all the terrorists. Including the Ft. Hood murdering Muslim idiot and we should not call him a Muslim, so forgive me. People are no longer responsible for their actions.
I read the article, coming in not believing one thing or another. I finished it believing that she is in denial if she says she's not a dirty player. Pushing, punching and hair pulling? Really? With a "she did it first" mentality? I don't think that in any way does she deserve to be threatened or harrassed and I think maybe seeing herself on tape acting like a bully might help her change some things.
Now she's sorry? If this behavior had not been caught on videotape and shown to the world, her behaviors would have continued. So we are to feel sorry for her and accept her apology? Come on, kick her off the team and ban her from sports and make her take anger management classes over and over until she fully understands the results of her actions (hopefully). A leopard doesn't change its spots.....
If this behavior had not been caught on tape it would be like hundreds others that happen every year. Sports get heated, especially at the college level, and women's soccer is no different. I've seen things like this happen before, but usually the ref will give them a red card and eject them from the game. It was a failure on the ref's part for keeping the game civil. This can happen to anyone in the playing in the moment.
She is one bad biatch.
I don't have any proof yet but I know it just a matter of time until we find out she is a Sara Palin supporter and probably a teabagger. I don't see why we can't go ahead and make the connection now and expect the next article on this "news" site will include that bit of information.
I have looked all over the site and see they didn't bother to report Joe Biden's motorcade was involved in the third accident of the week. I bet Sara is behind that also.
I'm thinking "Czar of the US Soccer Team", would be appropriate, she seems to have the right mentality.
????? You're on the wrong Post, Bob! Why you are even attempting to tie this into politics is completely off base. Take your comments to the other boards where they belong.
Lambert doesn't get it. Sounds like the "twinkie defense." Her excuses and comments are a joke.
hey bobby can you ever stay on the subject at hand or are your ass and mouth always in motion at the same time?
big liar - I do that about as well as this "news" site. I guess you can't see the connection??
Wow, another "athlete" making excuses for their bad, bad, very, bad, behavior. Surprising. I think she should look at the video again with an expert (like the narrator or an official)and she would not be so quick to try to rehabilitate her actions. The only thing she did not do is play the god card in some way. What an a$$wipe!
simply bar her from playing any sports. It will give her time to reflect on her actions. What an A$$hole