When the dust settles and the facts of the incident become clear to all, the impact of December 2009 in the world of sports culture will be unable to be understated. Only Jordan had such an impact on sports from such a young age. And even he didn’t find worldwide success as quickly as Tiger did.
In 1996 Tiger was a boy challenging men in the most grueling golfing event of the year. How many times in life do we say, "That kid will be the greatest ever," and it's actually true? Nearly never, but with Tiger it was.
In the midst of steroids and Vick and Kobe and Phelps’ bong...we had Tiger. Even Lance Armstrong faced accusations and a broken household.
He won with class and without controversy. Quite simply, he was (is?) the best.
Was it a lie? Did he let us down? Was the pressure we placed on him fair? He always owned Sunday, and was seemingly never rattled. But was he really striving under the pressure, or just simply keeping from cracking? Did we let him down? He didn’t ask to be our sports savior, were we really offered anything more than the best he could do on the course?
He never cheated the game. This wasn’t Rose’s or Jordan’s gambling. There will be no investigation by the PGA or the FBI. It speaks to how we held Tiger, that he is being so indicted for not a legal issue, but a moral one. Who knows how many women he slept with or how many will come forward? It isn’t important now; once that number hit more than one it was all over. Now each one still matters, is still significant, but they matter less and less.
But should we fans be surprised? The notion of a hero striving for perfection and falling just short is one that is as old as human history. Aristotle coined the term hamartia, referring to the tragic flaw of Grecian heroes. There was always one imperfection, no matter how small or discrete, that would prevent a hero from being anything more than just one of us…from being human.
Perhaps that is what it boiled down to. We were all just shocked that it turned out Tiger Woods was as human as the rest of us. He does stupid shit that he probably knows he shouldn’t. He does things without thinking about consequence. These things are natural and integral part of the human experience.
The next chapter of this saga remains largely unseen. Woods has made his path to greatness even that much difficult. He must continue to chase history under an even larger magnifying glass than before. The fans will be relentless. Everyone will be watching and waiting to see—just as on nearly every summer Sunday afternoon—whether Tiger will persevere and overcome or will he crumble and fail as he rarely does.
