Give the man a break

OK, I am shocked. Just like the rest of us are. Zizou, arguably the best footballer of his generation, one of the most soft-spoke athletes around, launched into a headbutt into the chest of Marco Materazzi in his final, farewell match. Damn, that was some headbutt too, any bull in Pamplona would have been proud.

I'm not even gonna talk about the circumstances leading to the event nor am I gonna talk about the match - there are enough websites covering that incident. What I do find disturbing is the fact that people are lauding Zidane for his sense of honour and chastizing Materazzi for his provocation. I mean, seriously, do we have to do that? Let's go past the fact that they are indeed public figures whose actions are watched by millions, if not billion all over the world.

We have this sick fixation for stargazing and I'm not talking astr0nomy here. We love heroes and at the same time we hate villains. To us, it epitomises the struggle between good and evil - the very fundamentals of our lives - and the hope that comes with the good. No ones wants to be a villain but everyone wants to be a hero. Due to this fiaxation we find ourselves looking up to our heroes.In this case, is Zidane the hero and is Materazzi the villain? But who defines who as a hero?

To me, I'd rather just look at it as one man's reaction to another's provocation. There are no heroes here. This thing happens all over the world. You get jibes all the time from your friends, I get it for my rotund figure. Do we really have to scrutinize Zidane's reaction even if he is a public figure? He is not a hero, he is a mere mortal, a real life person with feelings - feelings that are susceptible to being hurt at the provocations and insinuations of others.

Heroes exist only to give hope to those in need of the little ray of hope. We have Robin Hood, King Arthur, Hercules and Archilles as heroes. God knows if they had ever been real or just webs spun by old men to inspire the young of their time, whose tales have been retold countless times with a generous dose of embellishments of their own. I guess in every era, in every community, in every social structure, heroes exist for a unifying reason - to give hope and direction to the desired morality in our lives.

The Greeks has Hercules and Archilles as their beacon of hope, Anglo-Saxons has King Arthur and Robin Hood, the Malays has Hang Tuah, the Chinese has Wong Fei Hong, the Americans has........well, they have Rambo and Luke Skywalker. All these heroes symbolizes the good - in every facet of their lives - that we desire to have in our lives and the hope that our children will be as good as these heroes. Dare we put Zidane in the same bracket as them?

Last I check, none of those heroes have headbutted their adversaries. Give Zidane a break, he's not a hero, just a mere mortal with immortal talents.