If you go to this CTV.ca story, you can link to a few YouTube videos that are funny. Or just go to YouTube and search on Zidane.
Here's Zidane's explanation. The Globe and Mail editorialized on Zidane in Thursday's paper, while Margaret Wente columnized on the gaffe.
Meanwhile, the Toronto Star's Cathal Kelly paints Zidane antagonist Marco Materazzi as the Claude Lemieux of Italian soccer:
Much has been made of Zidane's famous temper — the Saudi he stomped on in the 1998 World Cup, the 14 red cards over a 17-year career.
But whereas Zidane is a superstar with a mean streak, Materazzi is a journeyman known for little else. The Italian's two-footed horror tackles are legendary. He was once suspended for two months for cold-cocking a former teammate in a post-match tunnel brawl. He has been derided by his countrymen as an "animal" and booed the length of Italy. ...
Zidane could have waited for an opportunity to spike the lanky defender later in the game. He could have faked an injury the next time Materazzi brushed against him in the hopes of getting him sent off. That's what most of today's soccer stars would have done.
Instead, he squared up to him, took one purposeful step and gave him the old "Marseilles handshake." How Materazzi was caught totally off-guard is more curious than why the head-butt was delivered in the first place.
It was inelegant. It was wrong. But it was a far sight more manly than a sneak attack or a kick in the privates. For me, watching infamous divers like Francesco Totti or Thierry Henry step up to give their post-match two cents about Zidane's "madness" was more nauseating than the attack itself.