Creepy Tiger Nike Ad

Nike unveiled a new ad featuring Tiger Woods that features his deceased dad's voice, as if to question him over his illicit activities. Creepy or effective? (video courtesy CBS News)

Woods Talks to Rinaldi

Photo courtesy of BusinessPundit.com.

In the midst of March Madness, there's other news that surfaced over the weekend. Golfer Tiger Woods was interviewed by ESPN's Tom Rinaldi Sunday night in a tightly controlled, 5-minute interview available here, with post-interview commentary by Rinaldi here and ESPN Golf's Bob Harig's take here.

I don't doubt Tiger's remorse and I respect that there are matters he wants to remain private, however this interview did not cast any further positive light on his situation. The interview's controls were evident, and as a result, there is a sense of distrust, especially when a man who had previously lied to millions by portraying someone he wasn't use phrases like, "to tell you the truth" and "honestly,..." Tiger, those phrases are unnecessary and only reassert the notion that you lied previously. The second key flaw with the interview was that he kept using repeater phrases over and over again, making it feel more like a press conference than an interview. We saw the press conference at PGA Tour headquarters, and this interview felt similar. Perhaps he should have waited longer to be able to give a more candid interview than the guarded one he gave to Rinaldi Sunday night.

The Long Fall

Photo courtesy of NewsOne.com

The news of Tiger Woods' infidelity over the last couple of weeks has rocked the sports world. His reputation for being a family man shattered. So how does one look at Tiger Woods now? On the golf course, he's my generation's Jack Nicklaus. His level of play and era of dominance is unmatched. His passion for competition is admirable. But that's where the love ends. Off the course, he's made a grievous mistake. There are so many aspects to Tiger's misdeeds, it makes it difficult to support him.

First, this incident shows Tiger to be clueless. Surely he had to have known someone was going to find out about his indiscretions. With as many as seven women (and counting, it seems) coming out as his mistresses, he had dug a hole so deep, there was no getting out. Did he not realize his reputation would be destroyed if these relationships came to public light? Second, this whole saga shows Tiger to be arrogant. If he had thought all this through and thought he could sweep it under the rug because he's Tiger Woods, than he's an arrogant fool. Third, Tiger underestimated the media's ability to gather information. What started as a car crash on Thanksgiving became a bigger story when it was revealed his wife wasn't with him in the car and it was in the middle of the night. By the time reporters verified everything, Woods' skeletons were jumping out of the closet.

Tiger is now on the same level as Tom Brady and, to a lesser extent, Kobe Bryant. Tom had an affair with a supermodel than broke up with his pregnant fiance Bridget Moynahan and married the supermodel. As a result, Tom could win twenty Super Bowl titles and I still wouldn't buy his jersey. Kobe had an incident that nearly got him thrown in jail, but he has since been "on the straight and narrow" with his wife and two daughters. Regardless of whatever he does at this point, when you have that many extramarital affairs, let alone the morass that Brady and Bryant found themselves in with one indiscretion, your reputation is gone. Sad for Tiger, as he is one of the game's greats.

Domination

Picture courtesy of the Los Angeles Times.

As I'm sure you've heard, Michael Phelps has completed his quest for 8 Olympic gold medals after participating in the 4x100 medley Saturday night and a way-too-close-for-comfort duel Friday night. 7 of his 8 gold medal swims were world records and the eighth was an Olympic record. If that isn't dominance, I don't know what is.

Michael Phelps has joined Tiger Woods as athletes who single-handedly defined a sport. While team sports can have standout players, everything they do as a success is defined by teamwork. In other words, players like Randy Johnson and Peyton Manning have had hall-of-fame careers, but their success at times is determined by other people. What if Peyton's defense blows a lead or Randy's teammates can't score any runs the day he pitches? Michael Phelps and Tiger, for the most part, don't have this problem. It's mostly an individual effort for them.

Tiger Woods has won 14 major championships in his career, along with 65 PGA Tour wins. He has made golf a sport worth watching and made it more accessible to the general pubic. Phelps has done that with swimming. Across the country, people have turned on their TV's all week to see Michael's latest race. In the workplace, Phelps' name has been the only one explicitly mentioned. Seeing Michael's mom all tense before the race, knowing all of America was feeling the same thing. Woods surely has had an effect in terms of kids wanting to play golf and surely more kids will swim because of Michael Phelps' influence.

Is Phelps the greatest Olympian of all-time? I cannot say for certain because I never saw Jim Thorpe or Jesse Owens compete and Carl Lewis and Jackie Joyner-Kersee were in the very twilight of their careers when the 1996 Atlanta Olympics occurred, the first Olympics I saw (and barely remember). However, there is no doubt that Phelps is the greatest Olympian of my generation, just as Tiger is the best golfer of my generation. Both will be remembered for their dominance in their respective sports and perhaps, inspire a new generation to follow in their footsteps.