Trash talking is alive and well at all levels of sports, as retired French soccer player Zinedine Zidane would likely attest. In the 110th minute of the 2006 World Cup final, in a scene that shocked and delighted viewers and was subsequently immortalized by YouTube parodies, Zidane slammed his head into the chest of Italy’s Marco Materazzi, who had taunted Zidane with a comment about the French player’s sister. Zidane was red-carded, sent off the field in the final game of his career, and Italy eventually won the World Cup in an overtime penalty shootout, an area where Zidane typically excelled.

“A lot of trash talk is actually aggression,” said Tara Scanlan, a professor of social and sports psychology at UCLA. “It’s a threat to harm the other person either physically or mentally.”

While Cornell athletes are not encouraged to trash talk, they certainly hear their fair share of it. For the most part, it doesn’t bother the Red athletes.

“I usually don’t say anything to them — they can say whatever they want,” said senior football player Ted Sonnenberg. “I don’t talk back to them. It just frustrates them.”

According to Scanlan, not reacting to trash talk is the best way to handle it.

“It really should be taught to use trash-talk as a trigger — to ignore it — to focus on the game,” Scanlan said. “I would suggest to never feed it, never respond, then run the guy over and score the point.”

Although trash talk is present at all levels of sports, it’s not a problem with every school.

“It really depends on the team,” Sonnenberg said.

Scanlan suggests that teams prepare for trash talking during the week before they play an opponent notorious for trash talking.

“If you are going to face that as a team, you should work into the practice what you expect to see in the event,” Scanlan said. “Learn how to deal with trash talk and not feed into it.”

In the experience of most Cornell athletes, the best way to deal with trash talk is to get ahead in the game.

“Usually, if you’re beating guys pretty bad, that’ll shut them up,” said senior hockey player Doug Krantz. “Sometimes, they’ll start chirping at each other, playing the blame game.”

Sonnenberg has experienced trash talking from losing teams however.

“There’ve been teams that are up 20 points [and are] trash talking,” Sonnenberg said. “Then there are other teams that are down 20 points [and] still trash talking. It just depends.”

Sometimes trash talking and forms of gamesmanship will show up even before a game.

“Some guys do it during the week before a game,” Sonnenberg said. “We’ve been Facebooked before. Some guys will try to poke us or friend us or something. It’s really stupid.”

It’s doubtful that Muhammad Ali, regarded as one of sports’ all-time greatest trash talkers, ever changed his Facebook.com status to “floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee.” However it seems that Facebook is one of the favorite tools of modern trash-talkers and hecklers.

“We’ve had like a hundred people poking us,” said junior basketball player Brian Kreefer. “They’ll definitely do their research. If they know anyone who is a friend of yours at Cornell, they’ll ask them to get some dirt on you.”

While the comments made by players and the fans can sometimes get personal, many Red athletes don’t read into it too much.

“It’s a tactic; it’s a strategy that people use,” said senior hockey player Doug Krantz. “Most guys aren’t too serious about it. It’s not mean-spirited.”

At professional sporting events there are plenty of aggressive fans with loud voices. But those heckling fans are even present at collegiate athletic events.

“At most away games there are usually one or two idiots back there just popping off,” Sonnenberg said. “It’s annoying, but you can’t let it affect you at all. Just laugh it off.”

“Even though we’re Cornell hockey and we have a pretty big fan following, there are a couple of rinks where they just get on you and try to throw you off your game,” Krantz said.

According to Kreefer, sometimes the fans even have something worthwhile to say.

“You can’t help but chuckle at what they’re saying,” Kreefer said. “Some of the stuff they say is really funny.”

Athletes even use inter-squad trash-talking in practice as a way to fire each other up. The basketball team uses friendly banter as a means to encourage playing harder and focusing on the task at hand.

“We all know that when we’re out on the floor it doesn’t mean anything,” Kreefer said. “And once we get back in the locker room we’re all friends.”

As irritating as trash talking from other teams can be, most athletes accept it as part of the competitive atmosphere.

“When you come off the ice you realize that you’re just a bunch of guys who love playing the same game,” Krantz said.