Tiger, Tiger, Tiger....

This Vanity Fair cover and subsequent article by blog enthusiast Buzz Bissinger is worth a post all on it's own but I figured I would give my two cents on Tiger Woods and the moronic decisions he recently made in his personal life which may be something that finally breaks him.

Ever since I turned 13-14 I have watched golf. At first my Dad forced me to sit down and watch The Masters with him and at the time all I could think about was getting the hell out of that room as fast as I could. Who wants to watch a bunch of overweight guys swing a stick and hit a little ball at a little hole hundreds of yards away? We would spend hours doing this together and all I could think was that it was just a waste of my time. Then came this young, energetic, fist pumping, Blasian named Tiger Woods and I was immediately hooked. He was the jet fuel for the little spark that golf was to the American Sports Fan and away he and golf went.

He was winning tournaments left and right, sponsors were forming a line to the left, he was being considered to possibly be the greatest of all time and just about every time he was playing I was watching as often as I could. I was enamored with what he was able to do but not with just swinging a golf club. The way he handled the pressure, his focus, the way he could just completely psyche out his opponent without saying a word, his mindset of one shot at a time....I mean the list goes on and on and I keep thinking eventually something has to crack him, something has to go wrong....but nothing

Years go by and I am still following him closely but I have now become a fan of golf in general. I still follow Tiger but closely watch everyone else and admire their abilities because even on my greatest day of golf I would never be able to beat them on their worst day playing one handed, from the tips, blindfolded. Tiger's legend and mystique are still climbing at an astounding rate and their are rumors he is dating Jesper Parnevik's nanny. A little Swedish blonde named Elin Nordegren. What's that? Oh you want a picture of this Elin?? Ok, if you insist.



You are welcome. Back to the story. Yeah, he ends up marrying that. Her! Could it get any better? Maybe she will be like Yoko Ono and break up his game and bring him down. Maybe she will be the one who finally breaks him. Alas, his game just got stronger. Then his father died. His father, the man who was his hero, his mentor(hmmmmmmm), the man who taught Tiger about the game of golf. Surely this is what would break him, this is what would crush his world and he would come back down to Earth. Nope. He took a month or so off and continued right where he left off. Having a kid? Nope. Having another kid? Nope. Tearing his knee up causing him to miss almost an entire year of golf? Nope he just dominated again this year. What could possibly break this man?

Apparently all it takes is a "gorgeous" woman or women that is not his wife because apparently he loves that more then golf. Now unless you have been in some 3rd world country or were doing your best imitation of Jane Goodall we all know what happened. The crash, the surgery, the golf club, the speculation, TMZ, Rachel Uchitel, abandoned press conferences, Jaimee Grubbs, Kalika Moquin, Jamie Jungers, Cori Rist, Holly Sampson, Joslyn James, Loredana Jolie, Julie Postle, Theresa Rogers, Elin kicking Tiger out, Elin taking the kids and moving to Sweden and it just keeps on going.

Yes that was 10 different women not named Elin Nordegren. As fast as his popularity grew over the years it all came crashing down in a matter of a couple of days. His perfect image is forever tarnished and he will never be viewed the same way again. His sponsors are even bailing off this bandwagon/cash cow. I sit here trying to think of words to describe what goes through my head every time I hear a Tiger Woods story. Disgust? Disappointment? Confusion? He is the reason I started watching golf. He is the reason a lot and I mean A LOT of people started watching golf. It's the same feeling I had while watching the steroid stories being dug up about McGwire and Sosa and how they cheated during that amazing chase of Maris during the summer of '98. Those two guys rekindled my love for baseball after I had lived overseas for a couple years. Just utter disappointment I guess.

I mean Elin is gone. Long gone. Content with collecting that $300 mill from him and moving her kids back to Sweden to be with her family. Now what does he do? Does he take a page out of the old David Letterman book and just go right back to what he does best? That's golf people not 20 year old pancake waitresses. Tiger should get out their and golf and win some tournaments. Get the writers, fans and sponsors talking about something else besides what happened this holiday season and hopefully his life can get back to some form of "normalcy".

In the mean time I am going to finish watching this Fiesta Bowl with these Horny Toads and the Boise State bell girl.

MORE COWBELL!!

The Urban Meyer Roller Coaster Ride

There is no doubt in my mind that Urban Meyer is a coach who has revolutionized the spread/West Coast/option hybrid offense and is one of the best coaches and recruiters in college football. However, his recent actions and Billy Donovanesque change of hearts has me questioning him as a coach, a father and a man in general.

Now before I begin to lambaste the man I want to open up on my feelings towards him and my roller coaster of high and low points since his days at Utah. Lets rewind the clock to the 2004 football season shall we? At this time Urban Meyer was starting his second year of coaching the little Utah Utes. The year before he had led them to a 10-2 record and won the National Coach of the Year from The Sporting News. Can we see the ride going up? That season caused an impressive blip in the college football world and people started to take notice. I for one loved watching this hybrid offense, that only a mad man scientist could come up with, just destroy all of their competition in the Mountain West. In 2004 he and the Great White Hype Alex Smith led the Utes to a 12-0 record and a bid to the Fiesta Bowl. This was THE high point. They became the first team from a Non-BCS conference to do such a thing and we all knew it would lead to a raise and/or a higher profile job. Unfortunately he chose the Florida Gators. At that moment my face went straight in to my hands, I shook my head in disgust and just let out a massive sigh due to the utter defeat I was feeling. I don't like the Gators. Never have and never will and there is nothing you can do to change my mind. This began the downward spiral with me and big Urb.

Ever since then I just feel utter defeat and depressed every time he is on TV. Not only did he go to Florida he also recruited Tim "I Too Can Walk on Water" Tebow. If you know me my feelings towards Tim Tebow are pretty evident and if you do not know me well I'll save it for another post. To make it easy I do not like him. Together they won the 2006 & 2008 National Championship and Tebow won the Heisman in 2007.

Fast forward to the day after Christmas this year. I am at my parents house and decide to just browse the internet and notice that Meyer is "resigning" due to health concerns. My initial thought was that as much as I dislike the guy I feel he made the smart and wise decision to put his health first and to be there for his family in the long run. He made the point that coaching always comes 3rd in his life behind his own personal well being and his family. We found out that the guy was suffering from a non-life threatening heart muscle defect, and persistent headaches caused by an arachnoid cyst. These are some major health issues that need to be taken care of and he was doing this. Bravo Urban! This became another high point in my view towards him.

The very next day I saw on Sportscenter that he had changed his stance to just "taking a leave of absence" and he should be back in the fall coaching the Gators. Wait...what? How in about 24 hours can you change your mind so drastically? How can you possibly do that to your family? Your daughter was so ecstatic at your announcement of your resignation that she was going to "finally get her daddy back." You were all set to take care of yourself, your family and take a step back for some time to get everything straight. What possibly changed your mind? Do you really expect us to believe that one "emotional" practice led you to come back? Or could it possibly be that the announcement of your resignation caused numerous potential recruits to begin backing out of their commitment to Florida and that led the Florida officials to persuade you to change your stance so that those recruits would still come? If that is the case you are now lying to just about everyone. Your family, your recruits, your team, the University of Florida and most importantly to yourself.

This is just a game, Coach. UF will be fine without you no matter what the officials are saying to you. You need to take care of yourself and your family because your other "family", your team and the University, won't be as loyal to you if you start losing. Your real family will however. Think about that Coach.

The Beginning....

After being a long time reader of various types of blogs I have finally decided to throw my hat into the mix and take a shot across the bow of the Sports Nation and see what happens. I figured this would be an excellent way to air out my frustrations on all things sports or life in general. I will also give out a lot of praise to those I deem worthy. If you agree with my opinions great! If you do not well I frankly don't care unless you are a person whose opinion I respect.

Before we go on any further I figured I might as well inform you of which teams I follow and root for just to get that out in the open. First and foremost are my beloved New York Yankees. Yes lets let the Yankee haters bombard me with the typical insults and comments. There isn't one I have not already heard so you won't hurt my feelings in any way. Next up would be the New York Football Giants. Now you may think I am just another douche bag, loud mouth, Guido from the northeast but just hold on a second. Next up are the Dallas Mavericks led by their loud, foul mouthed, whiny, arrogant owner who at the same time is an extremely intelligent, dedicated, forward thinking business man and sports fan. As for college I follow the University of Texas Longhorns. Yeah bring it again with the comments about rooting for a "winner" but I became a fan during the Chris Simms era (see Giants fan above) and as a friend of mine says "You must be the ONLY Longhorn fan who became a fan during the Chris Simms era." so it's not like I was rooting for them while they were winning that much.

Now I will not be one of those fans who put up blinders and see nothing wrong with their respective teams. I can make fun of each of those teams without hesitation. Whether it's an A-Roid comment, Johnny Damon's girly throwing motion, Osi Umeniorya's inappropriate bedroom behavior, Eli's mouth breathing and dumbass look on his face, Dirk's drunk antics with Nash, J-Howard's pot addiction, the love fest between Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley and even how UT's players have a tendency to utilize the Austin jail cells as their second home. I find it all amusing and highly entertaining.

Now that was a quick introduction to me and who I am. This is probably going to be one of the longest posts because I know we are all busy people with other things to do and I have a severe case of ADD and unless I am on a topic that really grinds my gears I will get my point across as quickly as possible. Now everyone get back to work or Deadspin or With Leather or Durden or CNN or Twitter or Facebook or whatever site you normally waste your day on and check back here later on. I am sure I will have something that will make you laugh or question my sanity.

In the mean time, check out how Mike Leach learned to not mess with the World Wide Leader:
http://bit.ly/4V1v5E