You know what annoys me the most about this Tiger Woods thing? It's not the fact that the media wants him to grovel for forgiveness which is so ridiculous it doesn't deserve more of our time and it's not that a sport story has now become great fodder for TMZ and US weekly.
What annoys me is the following
I heard Jim Nantz the blowhard lead play-by-play commentator for CBS Sports complain that Tiger cursed on the course this past weekend which Tiger had vowed not to do anymore and to be more respectful of the game and its traditions. My opinion about showing emotions in a sporting event is that it is par for the course, some people may overdo it but it's part of the game
The issue for Nantz was that Tiger was caught cursing on the golf course after a bad shot which Nantz found an offense more egregious than if Tiger had verbally assaulted Nantz' mother and then kicked the Nantz family dog for good measure. Nantz went on to say that other top golfers like Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els don't have these emotional outbursts like this and never curse and Tiger doesn't want it any more than his contemporaries.
What annoys me is that I don't believe for a second that Vijay or Ernie or Phil has never cursed, they probably don't do it as often as Tiger does but they also aren't being watched like a hawk. How about other athletes? Roger Clemens, Kobe Bryant, Brett Favre, Usain Bolt, David Beckham are they all choir-boys or are golfers held to a different standard because they wear khakis in their sport?
What really annoys me is that you can't have it both ways; the golf community always argues that golf is a sport but when their players start acting like athletes the old-guard gets their panties in a bunch.
If Tiger is to be considered an athlete than you can't be surprised when he acts like one. Athletes are emotional, they have disappointments and they aren't always the nicest guys but that's OK.
Hey Nantz have you ever hear of a guy named Michael Jordan? MJ was ruthless and did more than curse if he was pissed off he verbally assaulted everybody in sight.
If you are disappointed because they are ruining your precious sport then it might be time for you to start covering an even lamer excuse for a sport. What Nantz sees as Tiger's immaturity is what he would identify as Jordan's incredible drive to be the best. Jordan isn't just Tiger's idol, he IS Michael Jordan with all the accolades, trophy's, extra-marital affairs, warts, bad habits and need to be the best.
But because Tiger plays a white-guy country club sport he gets vilified. Tiger is an athlete playing (and dominating) a fat white-guys game and this annoys Jim Nantz and his buddies.
So once and for all.. is golf a sport or a game?
-The way I see it any 'sport' where people go and sit down for a hot-dog and a beer at the turn is not much of an athletic event, I've never decided to crack open a Corona while running the marathon.
-During a baseball game there are 40,000 people screaming at the top of their lungs and a batter is asked to hit a ball flung from 60 feet 6 inches at 98 miles per hour, in golf if somebody sneezes in a guy's backswing he can be thrown out of the event.
-In football guys grind it out in full gear for 60 minutes leaving their blood, sweat and tears on the field played in temperatures from 90 degrees during the summer to -20 in the winter, in professional golf they don't even carry their own bags.
-In basketball players are asked to shoot a 10 inch diameter ball into a 20 inch hoop which is propped 10 feet in the air with a guy jumping in his face from 25 feet away, in golf the other guys on your foursome stand far behind you so their shadow don't interfere with your read.
-In Soccer guys are in phenomenal shape, running up and down for 90 minutes, in golf guys routinely look like they swallowed a soccer ball.
-In Hockey the champions hoist Lord Stanley's cup, in golf the winner gets a blazer.
I love golf and its traditions but I also know that calling it a sport is lunacy, it's a skill mastered by elitists and the golf community wouldn't have it any other way
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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