“Once I built a tower to the sun, brick, rivet and lime. Once I built a tower, now it’s done; brother, can you spare a dime?”
— from a song of the Great Depression
Don’t look at me; I warned them. Warned them five, six times a year for the last 10 years. I tried to tell them that too much of a great thing takes you to a place so high that you can’t survive the fall. So don’t put all your eggs in Tiger Woods’ basket.
Just as golf’s TV networks weren’t satisfied with Woods as “The World’s Greatest Golfer” — they added “World’s Finest Human” — they weren’t satisfied making him the “face of golf.” No, as long as he made people tune in — double the ratings — they made him the only face of golf.
TIGER LOSES FIRST MAJOR SPONSOR
MISTRESS: I WAS WITH TIGER WHEN DAD DIED
That led to a conditioned reflex: When Tiger wasn’t playing, it wasn’t worth watching. When Tiger was playing, he’s the only one you’ll watch. And while others played, we watched him do everything, from walking here, to walking there, and then over here.
How many tens of thousands of “new” golf fans didn’t watch last year’s U.S. vs. Europe Ryder Cup because Woods was out after knee surgery? For three days, spectacular, passionate golf was played by the world’s best. Such play in the Ryder Cup is virtually guaranteed. But before the first match even began, the only story was: No Tiger.
Not that he played that many PGA Tour events early in the year. And so what that he was the billionaire who was led by advisers whose advice wasn’t worth a dime, brother? Now Woods is out indefinitely, left to repair an image that was baloney from Day 1. The TV guys and gals played the primary role in that con, too. And they know who they are. It was all of them.
And now golf, played by the rest of the world’s best, sliced, weighed, wrapped and sold as a TV property, is taking on water, enough to sink the ship. Don’t look at me. I warned them.
PHOTOS: TIGER’S MISTRESSES | JAMIE JUNGERS | RACHEL UCHITEL | JOSLYN JAMES | JAIMEE GRUBBS | ELIN NORDGREN | CORI RIST
Now Barkley is getting all moral with us!
Although we try to be sensitive to all social afflictions, “sex addiction,” as identified in Tiger Woods and other celebs, must be a rich man’s disease.
It seems that if you’re a wealthy, immature and spoiled brat, accustomed to getting what you want when you want it, such symptoms fit the profile of a sex addict.
But if you’re not rich and you try to pick up any and every woman in the room, you’re more commonly known as a pig.
Whatever the Woods saga brought, last week, there was nothing more perverse than listening as Charles Barkley, on TNT, condemned the media for daring to expose his Nike buddy, Tiger, as a creep.
Most of us have a lot in common with Barkley because we both think of the world as unfair.
But most of us think the world is unfair because people such as Barkley are able to sustain their positions and privileges, no matter what.
If, for example, we had no sense of consequences and engaged in 24-hour instant pleasure-seeking and gratification; if we had drinking issues, a profound gambling problem and a recent DUI arrest while preparing to have sex with an apparent hooker at 1:30 a.m., could we remain a fully entitled, nationally televised social critic?
What percentage of those lectured by Barkley about right from wrong are better people than he?
What percentage would still be employed had they duplicated Barkley’s behavior?
How many could get five days off from work — to spend in jail?
Salute CBS for intro on Army-Navy
CBS’s open to the 110th Army-Navy game — a smart collection of sounds and scenes, old and new, mingled with testimonies of enormously proud but deeply worried parents of all colors and accents, speaking about the peril their sons may face after football — was overwhelming.
On a telecast loaded with salutes, we salute the producer of that piece, Pete Radovich.
It returned to mind Chris Russo’s dismissal of Army-Navy as an event that “doesn’t do anything for me.” Geez.
* Kelly Tripucka for Walt Frazier on MSG’s Knicks-Hornets on Friday was strong. Again. He even busted himself after saying that the Knicks should keep going directly inside. Those words immediately were followed by Al Harrington quickly throwing up an ugly three.
* CBS’s pregame, yesterday, included a chat with Brett Favre, which was a relief since we hadn’t seen one in at least three days. … Tiger Woods is no longer good enough to speak for Gillette, but Vince McMahon is?
* Although all seemed to have the news at once — it wasn’t unexpected — ESPN credited the Brian Kelly-to-Notre Dame scoop to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen. Even if it was an ESPN scoop, who, by now, would believe it?
* Imagine spending, oh, $40,000 on PSLs, plus ticket costs, to attend a game like yesterday’s Jets-Bucs. … So WFAN pays all these sports people to check in with Mike Francesa and Francesa does all the talking. He tells them what he thinks. Brilliant.