So just after posting yesterday’s sports post, Zidane (the captain for France) headbutted one of the Italian players and got red-carded… to conclude his soccer career.  I’ve never seen anything like that.  It would be like Michael Jordan instead of hitting that last shot against the Jazz in 98, passing the ball, bowling over Russel, and getting thrown out.  It was just nuts.  I can’t believe a big time player like Zidane goes down like that.

And my other thought was, Penalty Kicks are dumb.  Especially for ending a game (the championship, no less).  The goalie doesn’t stand a chance, and it all comes down to the one kicker who blows it (or hits the crossbar).  It also is not a sign of who’s the better team at all.  Any team can beat another one in penalty kicks, it really doesn’t matter.

However, you can’t just keep playing overtimes, because like half of the players will end up dropping dead of heart attacks.  But what if you still had penalty kicks, but just moved the kicker a little further back?  Not a ton, just a little.  Give the goalie a little more of a chance, and make it more exciting like hockey shootouts (now those are really frickin fun to watch).

It’s not a great solution but it’s something.