Lambert crossed line — by a hundred miles

So who's the meanest, dirtiest, nastiest, cheap-shot-waitin'-to-happen athlete you ever saw? Former NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman, who once kicked a sideline camerman, had a well-deserved reputation for committing all sorts of on-the-court (and occasionally off-the-court) crimes. His one-time Detroit Pistons partner in crime, Bill Laimbeer, was a renowned thug at times, too.

There have been some truly bad characters in the NFL, guys like Bill Romanowski, Conrad Dobler and Jack "The Assassin" Tatum, whose vicious hit paralyzed Patriots' receiver Darryl Stingley — a hit which Tatum never apologized for — and turned Stingley into a quadriplegic. Pro hockey has its share of tough-guy-wannabe goons like Marty McSorley and Todd Bertuzzi, who were each suspended for assaulting opposing players.

But this week, my vote goes to ... yes, you guessed it ... Elizabeth Lambert.

Who? You know, Lizzy "Tizzy" Lambert, that mean little University of New Mexico soccer player who put on such a distasteful display during the Lobos' loss to BYU in the Mountain West women's championship tournament a few days ago.

Lambert's overly aggressive antics have been all over the airwaves and watched by thousands on YouTube the last couple of days, and for good reason.

During the course of the game, Lambert yanked BYU's Kassidy Shumway down from behind by the hair, violently elbowed another BYU player in the back — in all fairness, that one was in retaliation for the Cougar player's own elbow contact moments earlier — and proceeded to kick, slap, shove, push, trip, tackle, punch and generally wreak havoc and commit all kinds of mayhem on her opponents throughout the game.

This is not to say that BYU's players were completely blameless in all this. After all, soccer is an intense sport in which there's plenty of physical contact, so players' emotions often come to the surface. But they have to know where to draw that line.

Lambert, though, crossed the line — by, oh, about a hundred miles or more — and did so repeatedly.

Amazingly, despite all her dirty deeds, all Lambert got for her efforts was a yellow card, which begs the question: What in the world were the officials watching during this fierce match? How did she get away with all this unnecessary roughness? To her credit, Lambert issued a formal, sincere-sounding apology and begged for forgiveness for her egregious actions on Friday, and the slender, 5-foot-8 junior defender was suspended from the Lobos' soccer squad indefinitely.