Archive for May, 2010

Before his scandal and the avalanche of lies that followed and continued to this day, I would never have believed Tiger Woods used PEDs. I would have been more likely to believe that MSNBC was going to replace Keith Olbermann with Sarah Palin. But now, I think it is perfectly plausible, if not probable, that Tiger did indeed cheat with Performance Enhancing Drugs.

Part of why I have had this evolution of thought is based in my certainly that Lance Armstrong did them and the remarkable similarities between Armstrong and Woods.

It has always seemed pretty obvious to me that Armstrong was guilty. How else could a cancer survivor totally dominate a sport where cheating is rampant and where the margin for error is so small? Quite simply, no one is that much better than everyone else.

But now that disgraced ex-champ and Armstrong teammate Floyd Landis has come out and strongly implicated Armstrong and many others with specific charges of doping, the case seems to be a slam dunk.

In fact, all I needed to know that Armstrong is indeed guilty was to watch his press conference today. There was not one aspect of his performance that was remotely inconsistent with his guilt.

He failed to address any of the specific allegations and really didn’t even issue a strong denial. He entire case seems based on the fact that Landis has changed his story and that he is Lance Amstrong. He even laughably claimed that Landis had no credibility partly becasue his e-mails were sent late at night!

But the way Landis has come to this point is actually extremely credible. He is gaining absolutely nothing from coming out now and in this way. He easily could have made money (which he surely needs) from these allegations but he has not.  Also, the specificity of his charges are more than strong enough to at least demand some sort of counter argument from Armstrong. Armstrong’s silence on them is deafening.

This leads me to Tiger Woods. It is clear that many of the things that Tiger has done are right out of the Armstrong playbook.

The key to the entire Armstrong scam is that he has used the incredible success he has achieved by cheating to create a persona that no one will have the guts to question. Being a cancer survivor, creating a foundation, the “Livestrong” bracelets, the television commercials, all smack of a corrupt televangelist who is protecting himself from future revelations of scandal by creating a cult-like following that will only be strengthened by any allegations agaisnt him. Armstrong has even gone so far as to say that any criticism of him are inherently wrong because they damage the good causes he favors.

The news media has completely bought in to the Armstrong myth in much the same way they (as well a I) did with Tiger Woods. The media (rightfully) hates Barry Bonds and they make it clear he is guilty. They love Armstrong and Wood and therefore similar amounts of evidence against them get almost totally ignored.

Like Armstrong, Tiger has a high-profile charity foundation and, until recently, had created an image of himself that his character was far beyond even questioning. Also like Armstrong. Tiger has been outspoken about cracking down on PEDs in his sport and has also taken extensive time off at various junctures of his career. Tiger, like Landis’ allegations against Armstrong, has admitted having his blood removed and replaced during “therapy” (in Woods’ case by a doctor who has just been charged with rampant PED distribution).

Tiger stated that his sex scandal came about because he felt “entitled” because of all of his success and hard work. Is it possible that Tiger also felt “entitled” to human growth hormone to recover from injury? I have also felt Armstrong probably felt “entitled” because of his cancer and that the ends justified the means.

Unlike Armstrong (who is accused of a different type of PED use), Woods has also shown very obvious physical changes in his body which are consistent with PED use. From 1999 to 2005 Tiger’s body got much larger/thicker and his hairline dramatically receded.

Does this prove that Tiger has used PEDs? Absolutely not. But there is now more than enough to legitimately question whether he has, especially in light of so many other who were thought to have been innocent who are clearly not.

A recent poll of PGA tour players found that nearly one quarter of them now believe that Tiger Woods has used PEDs. Considering how difficult that conclusion is to come to mentally, it is an extraordinarily high number and one that may actually still be too low.

Wow.  Even though I predicted Tiger’s eventual demise after last week’s debacle in Charlotte, even I am stunned with what has happened over the past two days with regard to the collapse of Tiger Woods.

After quiting (officially this time) yesterday during the final round of the Players Championship due to a previously undisclosed neck injury, tonight we learn that Tiger’s much maligned (rightfully) swing coach Hank “The Luckiest Man in the World” Haney has informed Tiger that his is quiting as well, only for good (or at least until he realizes that no one will give a damn about him in a month).

What is most remarkable about these developments is that it was just a couple of days ago when Tiger went out of his way to brag about how he is “100 percent” healthy and mock claims that Hank Haney was about to be his ex-coach.

At this rate, the man whose father once claimed was physically incapable of lying has become (even after allegedly “coming clean” and making himself a “new” Tiger Woods)  is such a pathological liar that if tomorrow he tells us that it is Tuesday then I am going to question the entire calendar.

For the record, I do believe that Tiger’s neck is injuried (there are mumerous clips of him working on it during Saturday’s round, but the notion that this has been an issue since before the Masters without him saying a word seems bizarre). I also have no doubt that Tiger could have (and should have) finished the round, especially given his essentially quiting during his second round last week and the fact that he is supposely trying to fend off Phil Mickelson to keep his spot as number one in the world.  The fact that he didn’t do so (he couldn’t get through 12 more holes???!) indicates that he has lost his “eye of the Tiger” and his formerly steel will has melted like a candle in a blast furnace. Instead, he is now become a drama queen who, when he is going to be embarrassed by a bad score and forced to face dead on how bad his game really is, simply packs it in.

There are many things I never thought I would think/write about Tiger Woods that I have done so since last Thanksgiving, but none is crazier than the notion that Tiger Woods is rather quickly morphing into John Daly.

I would guess The Golf Channel will start production on the “Being Tiger Woods” reality series sometime after Tiger’s exemptions run out in late 2014.