Tiger Woods wants a child who is nothing like him
I have always liked Tiger Woods. Not so much because of who he is—though I do love his enthusiasm—but because I enjoy witnessing the evolution of a sport. I like watching Tiger Woods because he is a once-in-a-lifetime athlete who, like Michael Jordan and Pete Sampras, revolutionized his game and set a new standard by completely dominating the field of play.
That’s what makes this story so disheartening. When Tiger was asked if he could picture himself being a soccer dad, instead of ridiculing the idiotic question, Tiger responded by saying, “No, not soccer. Hopefully something more physical.”
Without getting into the physicality of soccer (we covered that here) or calling Tiger an ignorant imbecile, let’s examine the dripping irony of his denunciation of the beautiful game (don’t worry, it won’t take long). While Woods is undoubtedly an amazing physical specimen, he doesn’t exactly play a sport with the physical nature of rugby or, for that matter, croquet.
On a larger scale, it is interesting to note that Tiger will attempt to remote-control his child(ren), much as his father, Earl, told him what to say and how to act. Apparently, Tiger is well on his way; he already has a fawning blogger fanboy eager to parrot his tripe.
Speaking of tripe, does anyone else find the comparison of soccer parents to the parents of terrorists a little over the top?
9 comments
Josh,
As a blogger and writer at the same site as the offending article, please note that is not prevailing opinion.
In fact, as for myself, I have developed an odd fetish of enjoying trying to write like an old-school football scribe.
Keep up the good work and best regards,
Bill Wolfrum
Here is a news article about the quote, sans the golf blogger’s hack writing. It adds this:
(Sounds like someone won’t be getting any for awhile….)
Speaking of tripe, does anyone else find the comparison of soccer parents to the parents of terrorists a little over the top?
Yes. Then again:
- Most soccer players in the world are not American.
- Most terrorists in the world are not American.
- Therefore, most soccer players are terrorists.
I cannot argue with your astounding logic.
Bill,
Thanks for stopping by. I suspected most golfers/golf writers wouldn’t feel that way but it’s good to have that reaffirmed!
Here’s what I commented to the golf blogger who wrote the article in question:
To quote yourself from a previous article where you defended your writing: “There will be things that challenge your preconceived notions.” (Aug 8th, Edgewood Tahoe better than Pebble Beach?)
Too bad you don’t challenge your own.
You started out with a personal belief, obviously very unfounded on experience or research of any kind, that soccer is “ridiculous”, and used a quote from Tiger Woods as the proof to your hypothesis.
Brilliant writing. But not as brilliant as comparing the soccer community to terrorists and NASCAR fans or your assertion that Wood’s quip is “more impressive” than what he does on the golf course.
What your article has to do with golf, I have no idea. This was obviously an attempt to make someone out there care about what you write.
I care, and I look forward to your apology.
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A thoroughly embarassing moment for both Tiger Woods and this particular golf-blogger.
For some reason I want to believe that Tiger was joking, or that he meant to say that he hoped his child would play a sport less physical? Because the statement as quoted doesn’t make any sense and Tiger is no dummy. I too have always liked him despite being mostly indifferent to golf. Given the almost complete lack of any physical activity associated with it, I’ve never been able to comprehend why anyone would waste so much time on an activity that didn’t burn calories. Well, except for walking and carrying clubs, but most golfers don’t even do that. But why would I care whether or not other people like golf or nascar or snooker? And why does golf-blogger-man and his ilk care whether other people like soccer? My head hurts…
Or that he meant to say that he hoped his child would play a sport less physical? Because the statement as quoted doesn’t make any sense….
In the article I linked, it gives the following indirect quote before the soccer quote: “Woods… said he hopes his child will play the U.S. brand of football.”
Hopefully that sheds some light on whether he was talking about his own sport, although it’s still a silly thing to say. I mean, I love to watch American football, but I would never prefer my child plays that injury-ridden sport over something more all-around athletic like soccer or basketball.
Tryign not to go too off-topic on this – we constantly have kids who play US football in teh fall and soccer in the spring (a few – i swear – try to play football AND soccer at the same time)
Our son wanted to give football a try and we were loathe to discourage him from any sport he wanted to try (within reason) but the one thing we told him, which a number of parents mention in their and their kids decision making – is when you play football, you spend most of your time on the sideline during games – it’s the nature of football. The roster is huge for a small number of kids on teh field. Except maybethe quarterback, etc. With soccer – they play – a lot.
It’s not a swipe against football – that’s they way the sport is played and the more intense action requires that you swap kids on and off the field frequently – thus a big roster, 3-4 levels deep.
In the end our son decided to stick with soccer – mainly because his buds that played soccer had confirmed that when they were on the field it was GREAT but they spent a lot of time watching from the sidelines, even as starters (offense vs defense)
To each theri own – but what Tiger said was silly.