On my way back from Chicago today, I stopped by a bar with a couple friends to watch the end of the World Cup final between Italy and France. We had missed all of regulation, but made it in time for both overtime periods.

Towards the end of the 2nd overtime, France’s superstar veteran Zinédine Zidane exchanged heated words with Italian defender Marco Materazzi and then head-butted him in the chest, sending him flying into the turf!

(According to the NY Times World Cup Blog, Materazzi apparently twisted Zidane’s nipple, egging him on.)

The NY Times quickly posted the story detailing Italy’s win and Zidane’s misconduct and included a link to a YouTube clip featuring the incident. (Unfortunately, the NY Times doesn’t credit YouTube in the link)
It’s an odd, but perfect example of how video can and should be integrated into online print articles. The NY Times has plenty of random video clips featuring interviews and other short bits, but few actually relate to the major print stories or add anything valuable to the stories that sit on the front page.

A visual like this is something that just can’t be described fully in a newspaper article, but also shouldn’t be the focus of a story about Italy winning the World Cup.

I’m not sure how the NY Times usually integrates links to outside media sources in their stories, but this is (with the exception of the failure to acknowledge YouTube) exactly how it should be done.