Quote of the Day

"Why do people think they are owed something by celebrities or successful people? It's a joke. They owe us nothing but a good performance."- Jason Whitlock

Usually don't agree with him, but I definitely agree with this statement. Think about his assertion. What does he owe us? He is an uber successful golfer. Think, sportynation...

This is my Minority Report.

Tiger Tiger Woods y'all!

From the Associated Press with my commentary to follow...

WINDERMERE, Fla. (AP)—Tiger Woods canceled yet another meeting with state troopers but, for the first time, talked about his car crash on his Web site, saying it was his fault, that his wife acted courageously and that remaining details were private.

The statement was posted about an hour before troopers were to meet with the world’s No. 1 golfer at his home inside the gates of Isleworth. A meeting was not rescheduled.

In a tape of a 911 call released Sunday, two days after the accident, a neighbor told dispatchers that a black Cadillac Escalade hit a tree and “I have someone down in front of my house.”

Woods’ neighbor never mentions the golfer by name, and the call is inaudible at several points because of the bad connection.

“I came out here just to see what was going on,” the neighbor, who was not identified, told dispatchers. “I see him, and he’s laying down.”

One woman is heard in the background yelling, “What happened?”

In his statement, Woods took responsibility for the accident.

“This situation is my fault, and it’s obviously embarrassing to my family and me,” Woods said. “I’m human and I’m not perfect. I will certainly make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Woods said it was a private matter, and he wanted to keep it that way. What he failed to address was where he was going at that hour.

“Although I understand there is curiosity, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible,” he said.

Windermere police chief Daniel Saylor has said Woods’ wife, Elin, used a golf club to smash out a rear window to help him get out of the SUV when she heard the crash from inside their home at 2:25 a.m. Friday.

“The only person responsible for the accident is me,” Woods said. “My wife, Elin, acted courageously when she saw I was hurt and in trouble. She was the first person to help me. Any other assertion is absolutely false.”




Sgt. Kim Montes of the Florida Highway Patrol said Woods’ attorney, Mark Nejame, informed the patrol that Woods would not be meeting with troopers Sunday afternoon.

“It has not been rescheduled,” Montes said. “He’s not required by law to give us a statement, and we’ll move forward with our investigation without it.”

Police first tried to interview Woods on Friday, only for his wife to ask if they could return the next day because he was sleeping.

As they headed to Woods’ $2.4 million house inside the gates of Isleworth on Saturday afternoon, FHP dispatch put through a phone call to troopers from Woods’ agent, informing them that Woods and his wife would be unavailable to talk until Sunday.

The accident came two days after the National Enquirer published a story alleging that Woods had been seeing a New York night club hostess, and that they recently were together in Melbourne, where Woods competed in the Australian Masters.

The woman, Rachel Uchitel, denied having an affair with Woods when contacted by The Associated Press.




Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred confirmed she was representing Uchitel when she was reached by the AP on Sunday.

“She is with me in L.A.,” Allred said later in an e-mail to the AP. “We plan to meet and then we’ll decide on the next step, which we do not plan to announce to the press.”

Uchitel arrived at Los Angeles International Airport late Sunday morning, where she was met by Allred and escorted out of the baggage claim area and into a black car. Uchitel did not speak to reporters except to ask that she be left alone.

Woods is to host his Chevron World Challenge this week in Thousand Oaks, Calif., which benefits his foundation. Woods’ news conference had been scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, although it was not clear if he would still play, or even attend.

“We do not know if Tiger is playing; we are anticipating a great week of competition,” said Greg McLaughlin, the tournament director and president of his foundation.

Aside from occasional criticism of his temper inside the ropes, Woods has kept himself out of the news beyond his sport. In an October posting on his Facebook account, Woods wrote, “I’m asked why people don’t often see me and Elin in gossip magazines or tabloids. I think we’ve avoided a lot of media attention because we’re kind of boring. …”

“He’s an iconic brand, the platinum standard,” said John Rowady, president of rEvolution, a Chicago-based sports marketing agency. “I find it interesting how he’s being attacked by so many sides after how gracious he’s been. But even the best of celebrities who try to do their best can be riddled with controversy.”



AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson in Jacksonville, AP Sports Writer Tim Dahlberg in Las Vegas and Associated Press writers Linda Deutsch in Los Angeles, Lisa Orkin Emmanuel and Sarah Larimer in Miami and Louise Nordstrom in Stockholm contributed to this report.

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Tiger Woods' remarks have been tremendously well though out, calculated, and wise. He has taken responsibility for the incident, has attempted to deflect attention away from his wife and family, and most importantly he has not said too much.

Famous people and/or people in the public eye far too often succumb to public pressures and sabotage themselves in a multitude of ways. That is to say that these noteworthy people make public statements against the advise of attorneys (see Jim Leyritz), make the media rounds (see Roger Clemens), write a lot on the personal websites, blogs, and social networking sites, and etc (see most anyone on Twitter and facebook).

The typical sports guy/gal or media member will tell you that Tiger must come clean. Tiger must speak up and do the "right" thing which is to tell all. Tiger owes this too his fans, the public, his sponsors, and the little children that look up to him. However, that position an d expectation is disingenuous and bordering on the asinine.



Sporty nation, Tiger Woods has a very very very small expectation of privacy. He is famous, he makes millions upon millions because of fans, the general public, the media, and etc. That being said, he doesn't truly owe any of these parties information about what is going on in his personal life or his arrests particularly because they are done in private and because they are not directly incongruous to an image that he is portraying. To further clarify, if Tiger Woods pulled an Eliot Spitzer and cracked down on crime and profited monetarily, politically, and socially then we have a serious serious issue that needs to be pointed called out, or if Tiger Woods a spokesman for PETA and was frequenting bull fights in Seville, then we have a relevant story because he is directly profiting from a blatant lie. What Tiger is alleged to have does not have to be told to the public.

(side note, how funny is Chris Berman endorsing Nutrisystem and Applebee's simultaneously on ESPN?)



In addition to the above, Tiger speaking to the public could and probably would be more damaging to his career, his sponsors, his family, the sport of golf, and his image. Tiger does not benefit from speaking to the police, holding a press conference, and/or "telling all." Is it not exceptionally unrealistic for people to expect Tiger Woods to air his personal life and alleged dirty laundry out to the public because the public wants to know. After all, let's not forget that the media benefits from the downfall of athletes and famous people and instututions. (See Perez Hilton and TMZ as well at The Duke Lacrosse scandal, the downfall of Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Allen Iverson, and Terrel Owens to name a few).

Dan Le Batard, probably my favorite sports columnist ever and certainly my favorite sports personality of all time said, "Why would and should Tiger talk to police if law doesn't demand it and anything he tells them will be purchased anonymously by TMZ?" The answer is...he shouldn't.

Sportynation, Tiger Woods doesn't owe us anything and we are kidding ourselves with expectations that are far beyond what we would expect from ourselves. Would you announce to the co workers and etc. what happened in your personal life this past weekend or one of your lower points of your life? Probably not. And finally, there is no true ethical dilemma at play here.

As I told my cousin Vinny, we have absolutely NO idea what goes on in these individual's lives (even though we too often think we do) and nor should we know what going on in these individuals lives.

This is my Minority Report.

Texas Christian University #1?

Sportynation it seems like Texas Christian University (TCU) could be the best team in the nation, but that's not enough.



TCU is currently #4 in the nation, and probably has a slim to none chance to be crowned the best team in the nation. They have 3 immensely quality wins this year against Clemson, a top 20 team with a leading Heisman trophy candidate, BYU, a top 20 team, and Utah, another top 20 team that beat an Alabama team last year in a BCS bowlgame that returned many of its players and is back at the top of college football. Not only does TCU have quality wins, it will wins its conference easily and has only been challenged once this year. TCU has a top 4 total offense as well as a top 4 total defense this year.

TCU has performed mightily and admirably this year,and honestly there is not much more they could have done this year. They have been exceptionally consistent and impressive all year with a solid schedule. However, The University of Florida (UF), The University of Alabama (Bama), and the University of Texas (UT) are very far ahead of TCU and will remain there for some puzzling reason.

UT has won all of their games this year, but has been unimpressive often and has played one team that is currently in the top 25. So, UT has this going for it...A lofty preseason ranking, unimpressive wins, and an average schedule. BCS Championship game here they come! Sportynation, please look at UT's schedule right now and tell me where the quality opponents are.

Next we have Bama from the perennially media darling South Easter Conference (SEC). Bama has two wins over teams that are currently in the top 25, LSU and Va Tech. And, has been impressive at times and merely ok at other times particularly with it's QB play and offensive lulls . One of those "ok" times was against an average rebuilding team, University of Tennessee (UTK). Bama had to have a last second easy field goal block and also help from the referees (that also refereed a controversial UF game that will be later discussed) to pull a win at home against this average UTK team. The win was a win, but the way it went down was lucky and unfulfilling.

UF has played well and should be commended for there 0 loss season thus far and a return to the SEC championship game. However, qualitatively this season has not been impressive. UF has one win against a team that is currently in the top 25 and that win was ugly, unimpressive, and against merely a "pretty good" team, LSU. UF has controversial wins against Arkansas and to an extent against Mississippi State both of which are not considered good teams and probably are bad teams. These wins were so controversial and highly contested that the referring crew was suspended shortly after the game. There is a common belief by most outside of the SEC, that the SEC and it's officials are trying its best to keep UF undefeated as well as Alabama.



Sportynation, just the other day a national commentator declared that he thinks and would vote a one loss SEC team over TCU, Boise State, or Cincinnati. Not only is this unreasonable, but it is shocking, unfair, arrogant, and elitist.

This blog post is not intended to tell you definitively who the best team in the nation, but rather it is intended to get you all out of the easy common thought that we have to always reward the incumbent or the teams that were successful last year or the year before. There is more parity in college football. Teams are recruiting better (Tomlinson, arguably the NFL player of the decade went to TCU as an fyi), nutrition is better, coaching is better, and more and more people are playing football. Teams change. Conferences change. It is entirely possible that the Big 12 can be down this year as well as the SEC. College Basketball is inundated with surprising teams and sooner rather than later a #1 seed in college basketball will lose to a #16 against all odds. And, that team will probably not win the national championship. So we shouldn't vote off of what we think will happen in a hypothetical matchup, but we should vote off of what is fair. We should give teams the opportunity to play for a championship if they are deserving. No one thought that Boise State would beat a good Oklahoma team. No one thought that the talented Bama team of last year would lose to Utah. No one! And, it happened.

We no longer should make excuses for the power conference teams. Alabama lost last year because they didn't want to win the BCS bowl game. If UF were to lose a regular season a rationalization would be made. If TCU were lose a game a undeniable acceptance and I told you so would be ever present. And, those are the unfortunate facts!



This is my Minority Report.

congrats yanks

Congrats on #27. Thaaaaaaaaa Yankeeeeeees win.

Typical sports guy and media, APOLOGIZE to Girardi. (blog post to come)

Stay responsible sportynation. This is my Minority Report.