The Elizabeth Lambert Incident will not go away.

Days after the video of the New Mexico soccer player punching, hair-pulling and otherwise gooning it up in a game against BYU, her notoriety goes on and on. So do the questions about how much gender enters into both the public reaction and the punishment meted out.

Jere Longman-- who covered the 1999 U.S. women's soccer team, the one that turned little girls into soccerheads all over the country -- addresses that issue here.

Most of what he says I wholeheartedly agree with. The public and the powers-that-be do react differently to on-field violence by women as opposed to men.

Men, frankly, can get away with more. Look at the meager "punishment" (a half-game suspension) meted out by Urban Meyer when one of his linebackers, Brandon Spikes, attempted to claw loose the eyeballs of a Georgia running back. Some (including the running back in question) even defended Spikes to a degree, saying he shouldn't have been punished at all.

And yet, what he did was just vile as anything Lambert did. And Lambert's been suspended indefinitely. And I don't hear anyone out there defending her.