Elizabeth Lambert: Bad Girl Gone Good
There’s a disconnect in Elizabeth Lambert’s words. You know it. I know it. Ms. Lambert doesn’t quite know it, but she’ll get to the bottom of it soon enough.
The violent villainesse from the YouTube clip that made the rounds two weeks ago finally threw in her two cents to Jeré Longman of the New York Times. The interview was underwhelming in that nothing was explained.
Lambert blamed the fans for taunting her, the video clips for de-contextualizing the aggressiveness of the game, referee Joe Pimentel for not issuing more penalties, the sexist public for blowing the whole thing out of proportion and the BYU team for playing just as dirty as she did. But with each round of finger-pointing, she ultimately rescinded the blame and took responsibility for her actions.
“I’ll be angry with myself that I did this, to my team, my university, that I did this to women’s soccer, a sport that many females have worked very hard to get respect for,” Lambert said. “And I’ll be sad that people want to see me suffer.”
Once the video spread, what has transpired has been fairly rote. Outrage. A public call to action. A suspension. And now the apology. There’s a good chance this is where this story will end.
I find this unfortunate. A bit of a waste too.
Obviously, athletes can’t go yanking other athletes by the ponytail. Or anything else for that matter. That type of aggression will not stand, man. So she’s seeing a campus psychologist, speaking to the youth about not karate-chopping the necks of opponents and the infamous girl with the athletic scholarship will play it totally PG in hopes of getting reinstated in the spring. New Mexico University did what they had to do and Lambert is doing the same.
The unfortunate part is that Lambert didn’t own her aggressiveness. Wouldn’t it have been great for her to have apologized for being “over-aggressive,” acknowledge that she crossed the line and leave it at that?
“I look at [the video] and I’m like, ‘That is not me,’ ” said Lambert. “I have so much regret. I can’t believe I did that.”
Lambert had one shot on a grand stage to explain why “that wasn’t her” and her answers were given as vague ideas and then undercut by her insistence that they didn’t matter in the first place. The other team was aggressive. The stakes were high. The fans were taunting her.
It’s extremely hard to believe that someone – anyone – would absolutely snap on the field in an uncharacteristic fashion and no one, including the woman in question, would have any explanation as to why.
So if she wasn’t being interviewed to explain, wouldn’t it have been kinda badass if she used that exposure to become something bigger? A villain? An ambassador to an under-appreciated sport? Sports needs dirty players. The Bill Laimbeers. The Bill Romanowskis. The A.J. Pierzynskis.
Elizabeth Lambert could be America’s first dirty player that isn’t named Bill or have “ski” at the end of her name. In France, I’m pretty sure “Lambert” and “Laimbeer” are pronounced the same. See? Kismet.
Imagine what it would do for Lambert, the UNM soccer program and the women’s game if she came out and said, “I shouldn’t have been so aggressive. I’ve got to keep that in check, but soccer is a rough sport. Everyone on the field is playing to win and I refuse to curb my competitiveness.”
If she gives that to Mr. Longman at the Times, I guarantee the story wouldn’t end there. Perhaps the story ending is all Lambert wants. It probably is, but I can’t help but feel there was a wasted opportunity here. How often do secondary sports like women’s college soccer get a chance to capitalize on an entire sports culture paying attention to it?
Apologizing and pleading temporary I-dunno-what-happened is a missed opportunity for everyone involved.
If Lambert really did just snap that day against Brigham Young, so be it. But if NCAA women’s soccer is as aggressive as Lambert said (and showed that it can be), why not embody that? Why not ride it for all its worth?
Who wouldn’t benefit from it?
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