Paul,

I don’t know how much I would blame the media for jumping the gun with Zidane getting MVP honors. Many of those MVP votes take place midway through the fourth quarter or so, in an effort to get everything prepared for the award presentation. The same is true for interview requests for players after the game. With Zidane’s headbutt coming near the end of overtime, the vote probably already occured in order to get the trophy presentation ready.