Hair-pulling incident continues to 'amaze'

Elizabeth Lambert, the New Mexico junior soccer player who was suspended indefinitely for aggression including a hair-pulling takedown of a BYU player in the semifinals of last week's MWC soccer tournament in Provo is officially a star.

Internet videos on YouTube.com showing Lambert's antics have become one of the most popular topics on cyberspace and mainstream print and broadcast media around the world.

The topic made Monday's NBC Today Show, Late Show with David Letterman and the "Pinhead" segment of "The O'Reilly Factor," on the Fox News channel.

Lambert's play against the Cougars brought more than 400 headlines from around the globe including pieces in the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and Detroit Free Press to mention a few.

Even BYU football coach Bronco Mendenhall, who purposely isolates himself from sports headlines and TV and radio shows, admitted exposure to the incident which has received thousands of comments on message boards and online comment boxes.

Mendenhall's Cougars play New Mexico this Saturday in Albuquerque, and at his Monday press conference, he was asked if he knew anything of Lambert's story, which was featured on ESPN's SportCenter over the weekend.

Mendenhall said while on a charter flight to Laramie, Wyo., last Friday he saw clips of the incident on ESPN.

"Amazing," Mendenhall said. "I probably shouldn't comment further."

e-mail: dharmon@desnews.com