Lambert sets bad example for women’s soccer

The University of New Mexico’s women’s soccer team has been making a splash recently when footage of junior defensive back Elizabeth Lambert’s hyper-aggressive play started to be shown on several television shows, as well as on hundreds of Web sites.

The video shows Lambert viciously fouling several players from Brigham Young University’s team, including throwing elbows and punching an opposing player’s spines. The most appalling? The moment where Lambert yanks on an opposing player’s pony tail so hard that the player drops to the ground immediately. For a moment, you believe that the player’s neck was snapped while watching her lying lifeless on the grass.

I would like to thank Lambert for exposing women’s soccer as the aggressive sport that it is. People will now think twice before demeaning women’s soccer and dubbing the women who play it as “foot fairies.”

On another note, I would like to thank Lambert for screwing with a sport that has had trouble getting publicity for years. It has been a decade since the women’s national team won the World Cup off of Brandi Chastain’s penalty kick. Since the huge win for not only women’s soccer, but women athletics in general, the sport has seen a professional league fail and another one complete its first season without much notice.

Women’s soccer doesn’t need some college player to put the sport in the news for bad reasons. It needs good publicity, complete with positive coverage in the media.

Lambert was suspending last Friday by her university after the footage became a viral sensation and was shown on SportsCenter. My question is: “How did it get this far to begin with?”

A player like Lambert, who obviously uses physicality as a part of her play, had to have been displaying this type of behavior all season long without punishment. Sure, she probably received a yellow card or two, but the fact that it took nationwide response over the video to get the New Mexico to reprimand her is shocking and disappointing.

Then there was the apology released by Lambert through the New Mexico athletic department. It was ridiculous, and anyone who believes she was sincere is naïve. Lambert states her actions were “uncalled for” and that she “let her emotions get the best of her.”

Yeah, sure. Emotions get the best of you; that is how athletes are wired. I’m positive I’ve let my emotions get to me in any season I’ve ever been a part of, but that never made me pull a girls pony tail so hard that she fell to the ground in agony.

Go watch women’s soccer. Watch it during the upcoming NCAA tournament. Watch the Women’s Professional League. Watch the Women’s National Team compete in the Olympics or World Cup. But please, don’t give attention to a player doing the game a disservice.