From the NY Times:
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.
Her action was indefensible, Lambert said Tuesday in her first interview since the incident occurred Nov. 5 in a Mountain West Conference semifinal game and led to her indefinite suspension from the New Mexico team.
“I still deeply regret it and will always regret it and will carry it through the rest of my life not to retaliate,” said Lambert, a 20-year-old junior on scholarship.
“I look at it and I’m like, ‘That is not me,’ ” said Lambert, a defender and an all-conference academic player. “I have so much regret. I can’t believe I did that.”
Some of her actions — like the apparent punch, which she said was inadvertent — were misinterpreted or taken out of context on a condensed video, Lambert said. And she said she believed that the incident was blown out of proportion because it occurred in a women’s game. She said it was wrongly reported to be her when it was actually a teammate who tried to clear a ball and accidentally kicked it into the face of a B.Y.U. player.
“I definitely feel because I am a female it did bring about a lot more attention than if a male were to do it,” Lambert said. “It’s more expected for men to go out there and be rough. The female, we’re still looked at as, Oh, we kick the ball around and score a goal. But it’s not. We train very hard to reach the highest level we can get to. The physical aspect has maybe increased over the years. I’m not saying it’s for the bad or it’s been too overly aggressive. It’s a game. Sports are physical.”
“I think the way the video came out, it did make me look like a monster. That’s not the type of player I am. I’m not just out there trying to hurt players. That’s taking away from the beauty of the game. And I would never want to do that.”
Lambert said she was shaken and appalled by some of the responses she received in e-mail messages, telephone messages and on blogs, which included the publishing of her parents’ home phone number in Southern California and one suggestion that “I should be taken to a state prison, raped and left for dead in a ditch.”
She said she felt conflicting emotions and sometimes still woke up in a sweat.
She said she was taken aback at how the incident had been perceived by some as sexy catfighting between two women. She said she was aghast that some men had sent her messages saying, “Hey, we should meet up some time.”
“That appalled me,” Lambert said. “A lot of people think I have a lot of sexual aggression. I was like, ‘Whoa, no, I don’t feel that way at all.’ That’s bizarre and shocking to me.”
The game against Brigham Young began with familiar passion and intensity, Lambert said. Emotions escalated after Brigham Young took a 1-0 halftime lead, given that a defeat could mean the end of the season and a failure to qualify for the N.C.A.A. tournament, she said.
Opposing fans were mockingly chanting her name, she said, and players on both teams were playing aggressively. She said she was called names and taken down to the ground with cheap shots. On video, a B.Y.U. player can be seen elbowing Lambert in the stomach before she shoves the opponent in the back in retaliation. Shumway can be seen tugging on Lambert’s shorts before she is yanked down by her ponytail.
If the referee Joe Pimentel had issued more yellow cards or a red card, Lambert said, “It would have been a very different game.”
Still, Lambert said that she did not want to throw Pimentel “under the bus” and that she did not consider the game to be out of control.
Her coach, Kit Vela, never instructed her to “take anybody out,” Lambert said, adding that the B.Y.U. players also did not appear to have malign intent.
Lambert said she eventually grew frustrated, as much with herself as with the opponent, saying she had often struggled with self-confidence and with feeling “that I’m accepted playing at this level.”
Lambert said of the match: “I’ve never been in a situation like that, where I was out of my element. There were times in the game where I was literally like, ‘All right, Elizabeth, you’ve got to get control’ of myself.”
In each of her two previous matches, Lambert had received a yellow-card warning, but those were the only cautions in more than 2,500 minutes of play at New Mexico, a university official said.
Lambert said she did not consider herself a dirty player. Yet in the second half, she yanked Shumway down by her ponytail and assumed widespread villainy.
“In that one moment, I let it all get into my head,” Lambert said of the emotion of the game.
Later in the match, Lambert received a yellow card for tripping.
She is seeing a clinical psychologist on campus to better understand what caused the hair-pulling incident. It is one of several steps she is taking, along with speaking to youth players about acceptable behavior, so she can seek reinstatement to the team in the spring.
“I’m working on my mental game to never let that happen again,” Lambert said. “That’s unacceptable in any sport to get to that point where you feel it’s necessary that you have to retaliate in a dirty manner.”
Should have been a red card earlier for the bad tackle from behind. Officiating was every bit as horrible as the behavior.
While I think the hair pull may have been excessive, I think the opposing player was bit over-dramatic when it happened. Just another example of media over-hyping everything…to think she has to see a clinical psychologist for this is a joke. It happened in the heat of battle…
Anyone who has played a competitive sport knows that these things happen and I don’t see what the big deal is. We only see what the media shows us and I’d guess this was generally a rough game. Also I think that this is being blown out of proportion because this happened in a women’s match.
woof woof
damn shes cute! haha
She looks good in that picture. and im with mike, these things tend to happen in competitive sports
yummy
NYT is playing Lambert’s PR game here. Print a pretty pic of this hottie and all is forgiven. She’ll soon be back in the game.
She should be allowed to play again….but really, the scarf was the giveaway!
I see a playboy spread in the future.
I can’t believe someone seriously thinks the player was overdramatic after being yanked to the ground by her hair. Criticize the victim… always a classy move. Pulled hard enough, that could have snapped her neck.
I’m with Steve T.!
winning isnt everything, nor is the season, heat of the moment= hard to believe, sorry honey but what u showed on the park makes it easy to think that this is your nature because even through sport our true colours come out. i got a feeling that she has tried something dirty in all her games, sorry but i concider a shirt pull dirty, play hard, play fair or stay off the park. try lifting your work rate & u may not have to resort to foul play, u’d never make my team with tactics like that BUT IN SAYING ALL THAT, ITS YOUR COACH THAT IS AT FAULT.
I remember seeing this initally and thinking, “sure am glad this sort of thing doesn’t happen in my league.”
Whoa, was I wrong! During our Sunday morning game, after breaking up a play with a slide tackle the opposition’s keeper grabbed one of our girl’s feet and twisted in an attempt to dislocate her knee. Our girl went ballistic and the fists started flying. Both got red cards for fighting b/c the ref didn’t see the foot pull.
Now, we are grown adults who have to go to work the next morning, few of us can afford to go out with a stupid injury. What annoys the hell out of me is that our team plays fair, clean soccer, but whenever something like this happens we always come off looking like a bunch of goons. Sure, we play to win and sometimes that means getting a little aggressive to get the ball, but we don’t go out there with the intention of hurting anyone. Win or lose it’s only a game and I just can’t understand what would make a person think that doing something that would be classified as assault in any other venue, is acceptable behavior.
Really not that big a deal. Anyone who played college sports, even high school, sports will tell you that it happens (agree with mike). This incident is over blown, she got emotional in a high pressure game, it happens. Think Zizou or Rossi (elbow against US), what about the foul on Cobi against Mexico back in the day? I mean com’n (sure they are prof. but still). The girl was playing ball, I will accept a yellow card for the tackle from behind and a second for the ball kicked after play was called. All other so called fouls (except the ponytail pull) were in the play of a ball.
I’ll tell you from experience, I can’t count the number of times I was fouled in college off the ball. Guys grab jerseys, elbow while running, kick ankles/achillies, jump with elbow leading etc. Oh and don’t get me started on goal keepers that lead with the fist or knee.
Why hasn’t her scholarship been revoked? I’m sure a psychologist is going to end a lifetime’s worth of playing this way…excuses, excuses in my book. In no way can her actions validated.
She’s right that the reaction would be different if she were a man. The question is why do we have these different reactions. This article has a really great analysis: http://www.msmagazine.com/Fall2009/womenplayrough.asp
There was definitely an over reaction. Guys throw punches in different collegiate sports all the time. Look at the Oregon FB player that punched that dude out. He was suspended but not kicked off team. He’s going to play this year yet. She was definitely out of line, but she should have been suspended 2-6 games and her university should have made her issue an apology. Case closed.
I hope she is able to get back out there. It’ll be a shame if that’s the end of her college soccer career.
That ref should have sent her off much earlier. Then, it would be “just another high pressure game”. But since she got away with that first rough foul, she thought she got away and kept pushing her luck…time after time. Human nature. No excuses.
It was totally blown out of proportion. I have played many sports and violent stuff happens all teh time. For someoen to say her scholarship should be revoked is just insane. In an ncaa football game the best player in the league guaged a guys eyeball out and only got 1 game suspension. This was clearly not that violent.
Best of luck,
sean
oohh she is hot maann
The story makes this quote of the world’s most famous student of occupational therapy:
“There were times in the game where I was literally like, ‘All right, Elizabeth, you’ve got to get control’ of myself.”
So is it “literally” a case of “you” versus “myself”?
Multiple-personality disorder? Blame me#2, not me#1?
I feel a book coming on, by somebody.
People need to come down on BYU and their players, but because it’s a religious institution no one will ever talk badly about BYU players…..if u just look at the video…Carlee Payne is the FIRST person in any of the videos to take a violent cheap shot….PERIOD.
The only reason nothing happened to Carlee Payne is that she is BYU’s best player…but eventually BYU got their just desserts…a lose to a pathetic SDSU team and a lose to #1 Stanford.
I’m not a fan of Lambert, UNM or BYU…I was a huge fan of Carlee Payne of BYU in her HS years until I saw her pathetic cheapshot on national TV. She’s a dirty player as well.
She can dirty tackle me.
Whatever. Elizabeth, you are full of crap. I played in women’s college soccer AND on a men’s elite soccer team, and I never once saw the kind of bullying and outright B.S. you pulled. That was clearly unsportsmanlike and unladylike behavior, and the fact that it has occurred on more than one occasion leads me to only one conclusion: You are a bully.