Setting the record straight with Tiger

I've zapped Tiger Woods a few times but it isn't personal. I dare anybody to review my older posts regarding him and point out where I told a lie. While 99% of the people are busy idolizing him, I have this little problem called being objective, that I can't seem to shake. Tough job -- but somebody's gotta do it.

I find it somewhere between comical and sad that other writers and/or talking heads will refer to someone such as myself as a "Tiger hater". I don't hate the dude. Never met him. If I ever did, I'd look him in the eyes, shake his hand and say, "pleased to meet you",  just like I would anybody else. Thing is, I wouldn't bow down and kiss his ass, like so many others are wont to do.

Was he the best golfer for many years? No doubt about it. Is he world famous? Absolutely. Does the fact that he's a black man in a predominantly white man's sport enter in to it? Right or wrong -- of course it does. It's like Danica Patrick. An average driver on what little is left of the Indy car circuit, mediocre at best in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, the minor leagues of stock car racing, and now is creating a media buzz over her possible jump to racing with the big boys. Do you think for one minute that doesn't have anything to do with her being a woman, with a pretty face, no less?

But Tiger's just a man with faults and weaknesses like every other man. Or woman. 100 years from now, if the nitwit politicians haven't blown up the planet by then, people will look at his plaque in the golfing Hall of Fame and say the same things we say about Ty Cobb right now. "Oh yeah. I heard of him. He's was pretty good, way back then". And then they'll move on and forget about it.

So call me a Tiger hater if you want, because I refuse to jump on the bandwagon of the poeple that worship him. Folks like that remind me of something ex-Prez George W. Bush once said. "If ya ain't fer us -- yer agin us". That was quickly followed up by the insinuation that if you disagreed, you were somehow unpatriotic and anti-American. It had something to do with one of the countries he decided to invade. I forget which, but I disagreed at the time. Given only those two choices, I thought, well George, I guess I'm agin ya. You only gave me two choices and I picked one. For that matter, I don't know what patriotism means any more, except waving flags, giving more money to already rich, corrupt politicians, or getting killed or maimed in an undeclared  war that was unnecessary in the first place. I'm an American, though. I was born in this country. For some reason, that pesky little thing about being objective keeps getting in the way. The First Amendment's pretty cool. Ain't freedom of speech a hoot?  But I digress.

Do I root against Tiger? I suppose, in the same way I root against the LA Lakers, the NY Yankess, Peyton Manning, and all things Lebron in Miami. It's not personal -- I'm just sick of hearing about it over and over and over again.

I like a good juicy porterhouse steak too, but if I had to eat it for breakfast, lunch and diinner every day, it wouldn't be very long before tuna fish or macaroni and cheese started looking pretty good. Enough of a good thing can be too much after a while.

An aside. My friend Deb and her girls tell me the real reason Eldrick fired his caddie Steve Williams is because Steve is messing around with Tiger's ex, Elin.

Two quick thoughts on that.
1) Somebody please say it ain't so.
2) If true, I do not, repeat, DO NOT, want to see the video.