Brian Mullan Deserves Serious Punishment, But Not ‘Dirty Player’ Tag - Burgundy Wave

Even among Colorado Rapids fans, there seems to be a certain level of acceptance regarding the reckless and dangerous nature of Brian Mullan's now infamous tackle on Steve Zakuani that broke the midfielder's leg and likely ended his season. Burgundy Wave, SB Nation's Colorado Rapids blog, suggest an eight-game ban and a fine of several-hundred thousand dollars would be fair. But what Burgundy Wave does find unfair, though, is the growing sense that Mullan is a dirty player and that will be given that tag for the rest of his career:

My only concern is the sudden and inexplicable title of dirty player that has been slapped onto Mullan, a title that he had never really held until after last night's hit. There are certainly some dirty players on the Colorado Rapids. Wells Thompson tackles a little to fiercely and often for his own good and we all know about Conor Casey leading the league in fouls last year because of his elbow-y style of attack in the box. I've seen quite a bit of Brian Mullan in the years that I've been watching MLS and he had never struck me as a particularly bad guy in terms of overly hard defending. Solid at defense yes, but rarely overly dirty in it.