What the hell? Zidane loses his mind.

Whoa. I DID NOT see that one coming. I don't think anyone did. Honestly, I was actually holding my nose and rooting for France in the final (the lesser of two evils, I guess, and I didn't want another Euro team to have more than three Cup titles). I thought the game was well played with substantially less Italiodiving than previous matches, and Zidane looked particularly good for the French side.

The French were starting to really take control of the game and the Italians were looking like they were dreading another disasterous PK scenario. Then, out of nowhere, Zidane BLASTS Materazzi with the most vicious head butt I've ever seen. He literally took the unawares defender off his feet, and Materazzi didn't look to be faking the ensuing pain. Look at it this way: Zidane makes his living using his head to strike a soccer ball at speeds approaching 30mph. That is some serious force, and when that type of force is applied directly to someone's sternum, that has got to hurt.

Of course France went on to blow the game on Trez's botched PK and the rest is history. I'm still dying to know what was said that could make such an experienced, normally calm player fly so completely off the handle in the middle of the biggest game of his career. It's gotta be better than "yo mamma wears combat boots," certainly. (Early press reports were along the lines of "your sister is a whore.") Time, and one hopes, Zidane, will tell.