1) Tiger Woods. The guy is human, made a mistake (or multiple) but was man enough to admit to it... leave him alone. I will defend Tiger til the death because of this: he has done more for the world of sports, the game of golf, and millions upon millions of children's lives across the world for everyone to become so short-minded they forget all of this. In case you are not a golf nut like myself, here are a few facts to support my argument with other random tidbets regarding Eldrick that you probably aren't thinking of. First off, the national rate of divorce is almost exactly 50%. The number one reason for these people getting divorced is "lack of understanding a partner due to scarce time spent together".... cant make that up, look it up. Now put it together, Tiger travels over 40 weeks a year and has people throwing themselves at him to get a piece of him probably 98% of those 40 weeks. For 12 years. Brutal. Secondly, Tiger has made golf cool, something it has never been. Golf is a respected game, has been for decades and that will continue past the time Tiger decides to hang it up. What it never has been though is cool. On average, a tournament that has Tiger draws 35,000 more fans for the week than one that doesn't and TV ratings with him in contention rival all major sports. People are enthralled and obsessed with this guy. Nike has made billions off of Tiger and just remember that they didn't even have a Nike Golf division before Tiger came around. Thirdly, look at how the game of golf has boomed since Tiger came along. Fifteen years ago Corey Pavin was the #1 player on the PGA Tour Money List making just over 900k comprised of 1 win, 3 2nds, a 3rd and a 4th place finish. Last year not a single event awarded a winners check for less than 900 grand for any tournament for the year. If you didn't make 660 grand you lost your rights to play on tour and over 90 players earned over a million dollars. These players should be writing a thank you letter to Tiger every Christmas for the inflation he has brought to the game. Lastly, Tiger is the most recognized human being on the planet. Not another opinion but a documented fact. As a global icon he has done tremendous things for charities and especially children. He has two Tiger Woods Learning Centers (one in California and another in Washington D.C) that are dedicated to having kids be educated in turning their dreams into careers. He puts millions of his own dollars into these every year and gets very little recognition for it. All this being said, he cheated I will give you that, but he is not the only human who has committed infidelity but the last time I checked he is the only one who has revolutionized a sport and impacted millions of childrens lives in a meaningful way, so cut the guy some slack.
2) NBA All-Star voting. Its an absolute joke, get it out of here. Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson are currently voted in as starters for the game and it is an absolute joke. Look at the stats. McGrady's season currently reads as this: 6 games played, averaging 7.2 minutes, 3.2 points, and a sweet 22.8 million dollar contract. Now if that doesn't scream an All-Star caliber season I don't know what does. I debate to myself all the time whether the NBA or MLB is a more poorly run league and viewing from the quote the NBA released yesterday saying they think the system is great and the fans wanna see stars so the balloting shouldn't change, then I will give the nod to those knuckleheads. Ray Allen has every right to call out the league for wanting to change the balloting from 100% fan voting and I agree. Too many deserving players will never make a team and it is a true travesty.
3) Lane Kiffin. You ask me today and I will tell you that I think Lane Kiffen is a visionary. Give it two years, maybe more but maybe less, and you will find that Kiffen is gonna make more changes to the way college coaches conduct themselves and hire coaching staffs than anyone since the Howard Schnellenberger/ Jimmy Johnson/ Dennis Erickson era at The U. Seriously. The glory days of having a Joe Pa or Bobby Bowden are over. The NCAA is evolving into beyond a cutthroat arena with coaching jobs becoming a revolving door that has on the front of it "We have money, we don't care about you, win for us today or we will find someone who can." Example A: Coach Richt coached the University of Georgia to a #2 ranking and domination of a Sugar Bowl win in the '07 season. In '08 they start preseason #1, get decimated by injuries and still won 10 games. However, by '09 there are people calling for his head cause he only won 8 games. These people are dumber than the people who protested Augusta National to admit a female member. But back to Kiffen. Here is why he is brilliant: he attracts the attention which is a major recruiting tool for todays recruit and he surrounds himself with coaching staffs that are fifty times smarter than he is and just lets them coach the kids and call the plays. He is on easy street. His thinking "try your best to get the best players in, commit as many type 2 NCAA violations as humanly possible to ensure you get those great players, then let the real coaches coach". As arrogant as people make him out to be, which he is, he even recognizes this by having his assistants make more money than him and is willing to take pay cuts to move to the next location. Kiffen will inspire a movement of ra-ra recruiting and coaching while making even the most level headed coaches consider the benefit of traveling hostesses. More importantly, he will create a movement of having as many high profile, NFL-ties assistant coaches as possible. All high schoolers wanna make it to the league. You get all your assistants to walk into their living rooms and say "I am a former NFL coach who will coach you to have the skills to make it to the league," and every dumb high schooler will believe it and go to play for him. Where you will come to find this is at big time schools with big time money to pay these assistants. The rich will get richer, just wait.
I still cant believe the Jets won today, unreal.
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