Tiger Talk

So Tiger Woods is finally going to speak.  Of course being Tiger, he’s going to speak under his terms, which means speaking to a small group of friends and a handful of selected reporters.  Presumably making a statement of contrition and answering no questions.  

This is all big news of course because no one has seen or heard from Tiger since his Thanksgiving night run in with a fire hydrant outside his house and the laundry list of sexual partners who have come out with announcements of escapades with the world’s best golfer.

The cynic in me thinks the timing of his public mea culpa is interesting.  While everyone in Norway is paying attention to the Winter Olympics, he’s going to admit he cheated on his beautiful Norwegian wife.

Maybe we’ll hear him say he’s sorry, maybe we won’t.  Tom Watson, one of golf’s all time greats says he needs to show contrition, tell the public he’s sorry.  He says he owes them that.

I’ll be honest with you.  He doesn’t owe anybody an explanation, with the exception of his wife and family.  If he wants to continue to be perceived in the same fashion he is at this point in time, he can stay hid out for as long as he’d like.  He can even try and play golf and not answer the press‘ questions.  

It wouldn’t be easy and he’s sure to be heckled by fans either way but he doesn’t owe us an explanation or an apology. He can just go on with his life.  That doesn’t mean he’ll have sponsors lining up to give him millions, but hey, he’s Tiger Woods, he’s already made hundreds of millions of dollars and apparently doesn’t listen to anyone when it comes to life advice, so what does he care about the rest of us?

I could care less if he apologizes or not.  Just don’t expect me to care about him playing golf if he doesn’t.  He’s already become tabloid freak and no matter what he does on Friday, it’s going to be a long time before that picture begins to fade.

The emotions of being a sports parent

I always get a little moist eyed when watching the Olympics.  It seems to happen more the older I’ve gotten.  It doesn’t matter if it’s summer or winter, if the athlete is from the U.S. or some other country, I see a great performance and I get emotional.

I can find a lot to get worked up over at the Winter Games and I’m not talking about the fence around the Olympic flame or the ice machine problems at the speed skating track.

I get excited watching cross country skiers from Norway and Sweden battle it out to shear exhaustion at the finish.  Seeing snowboarders like Shaun White get unbelievable air and perform tricks you can’t even imagine.

Watching short track skaters slingshotting like NASCAR drivers into the lead or luge racers fly down the world’s fastest track only hours after watching a fellow competitor lose his life in a practice run.

But nothing gets to me more than watching the shear joy of an athlete when they know they’ve just come up with the best performance of their life when everything is on the line.

I have three girls, all adults now, who all competed in sports, so when I watched Lindsey Vonn win the women’s downhill and then cry through a post-race interview when discussing all the training and all the sacrifices she and her family had made over the years, I thought first of my girls.  

None of them have competed at anywhere near the Olympic level, but all still compete, running marathons, taking part in long distance 60 mile walks.  Like millions of us, they get out there push themselves to limits they didn’t know they could reach.  Their stories aren’t told on network television, but that’s OK.  Just like Vonn’s husband and parents waiting at the bottom as she raced to victory, I still get emotional seeing my kids achieve their sporting goals.  

That’s what being a parent is all about. 

Separation beginning in NCAA field

It’s the time of the college basketball season where the outstanding teams begin to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.  Heading into the week, Most observers would have told you that the top four seeds in the NCAA tournament were going to be Kansas, Syracuse, Villanova and Kentucky.  They were beginning to show that separation.  Then Sunday came. 

First, Syracuse took it on the chin as they fell at home to Louisville 66-60.  The Orange gave up an 11 point first half lead in the process.  Not the sign of a championship caliber team, particularly at home.

Then Monday night, Villanova watched as a struggling UConn team beat them in the Wachovia Center 84-75 handing the Wildcats their third loss of the season. It was a contest where the Huskies managed to beat Nova on the boards and at the stripe on their home court.

Later that night, top ranked Kansas was outplayed most of the night by a fired up Texas A&M squad, but somehow in the final five minutes managed to pull out a 59-54 win over the Aggies.  It was a game that coach Bill Self described as muddy.  His team was beaten on the offensive boards, his All-America guard Sherron Collins was cold as ice from the field, but when the game was on the line, Collins made a couple of clutch shots, Xavier Henry played tough inside and Cole Aldrich came up with a key block.

Tough teams win tough games on the road when they aren’t playing well and Kansas managed to do that.

Last night, Kentucky pulled off the same feet on the road.  After withstanding a 13-2 second half run by Mississippi State, the Wildcats took the game to overtime with 7-0 run of their own.  Freshman sensation John Wall led Kentucky to an 81-75 overtime win by nearly pulling off a triple-double.  The John Calipari led squad showed the same toughness on the road as the Jayhawks.

The losses by Syracuse and Villanova have opened the door for others to grab a number one seed in the coming weeks, but this is beginning to look like it could be a rematch of 2008 with Self and Calipari facing off in a coaching matchup again.  Only this time it’s with Calipari at the helm of the Wildcats.