During the course of your formative years, you will probably cross paths with someone who will someday find himself or herself in the public spotlight. For instance, there is a whole group of Lake County residents who played basketball for their local high schools in the early 1980s. These boys most probably lost basketball games to state champion Cloverdale and its star guard, the 6-foot-7 Craig McMillan.
Four years later, McMillan was playing in the Final Four for Lute Olson and Arizona. McMillan was a starting guard and his teammates included a trio of future NBA stars, namely Sean Elliott, Steve Kerr and Tom Tolbert. Even today, I know a handful of 40-somethings who define their high school basketball careers by stating they played against McMillan, currently the Santa Rosa Junior College men”s coach.
I too have had similar experiences. Thornridge High School knocked my high school basketball team out of the Illinois High School playoffs in 1971. Thronridge featured a gifted point guar named Quinn Buckner, who went on to star on Indiana”s perfect 1976 title team. He was a first-round draft choice of the Milwaukee Bucks and won an NBA championship ring with the Larry Bird-Boston Celtics.
While attending Marquette University in Milwaukee in the early 1970s, I ran into some interesting characters. One was Bobby Rivers, a future MTV face who has a Christmas comedy song that we”ll hear endlessly over the next month on the radio.
The talented editor of the Marquette University Tribune in those days was a classmate named Charlie Pierce. Charlie was one of those fascinating people who knew a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff. I stood with him on the grass at MU”s 30th reunion in 2005 listening to a cover band play the old Buckingham”s hit single, “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.” Charlie stated that jazz great Cannonball Adderly had written the song. For the one and only time in my life, I matched Pierce by adding that Joe Zawinul of Weather Report had written the lyrics (a tip of the hat to Tom Aiken for that piece of info).
In the world of journalism, Charlie Pierce is better known as Charles P. Pierce. Pierce is the author of a great book entitled Sports Guy. He has a radio show on NPR. He writes for publications such as the Boston Globe, Golf Digest, Gentlemen”s Quarterly, and Esquire. Every now and then he”s on ESPN”s Around the Horn.
In 1997 Pierce spent a day hanging out with golf”s newest phenom, Tiger Woods. It was several months before Woods would win his first major championship at the ”97 Masters. While Pierce once described the lead-up to the Tiger interview as somewhat similar to negotiating with a foreign country, he ultimately found Woods to be quite accessible and very chatty during the time period that they spent together. Of course, keep in mind that Woods was less than one year removed from being a sophomore at Stanford University, living in a house on campus with a bunch of his fraternity brothers.
In fact, Woods was so open with Pierce that he showed his true immaturity as far as dealing with the press. Woods told off-color jokes that were both racist and sexist. After realizing that he had crossed the line, Woods tried to convince Pierce to edit the jokes out of the article. When they appeared in GQ in the spring of 1997, the Woods camp attempted to discredit Pierce, accusing him of misquoting Tiger. In the end, Pierce”s professional reputation remained intact, and Tiger and his handlers became increasingly guarded about his image and public persona. It”s safe to say that until the events of Thanksgiving Friday in Florida, Tiger Woods had been given a free pass from the media dating back to the GQ column.
True, people are very aware of his temper and his ability to curse at a moment”s notice. Most obvious was during the end of second-round play at the Open at Pebble Beach in 2000 when Tiger let loose a vulgarity-filled tirade following an errant tee shot. The mic alongside the tee box picked up that classless moment and it is safe to say that Tiger paid the PGA Tour for his potty mouth. Nonetheless, Tiger got a pass for his public vulgarity.
In the early morning of Thanksgiving Friday, Tiger hit a fire hydrant and a tree while driving his car, lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital. From that point on, the floodgates opened. Tabloids reported affairs with other women. Rumors swirled that Elin, his wife and the mother of his two young children, may have caused some of Tiger”s injuries. The Florida Highway Patrol was turned away in its efforts to interview Woods. Team Tiger went into a bunker mentality, asking for privacy. The silence only confused the issue and the next thing we knew, Woods was releasing a Jason Giambi-like apology, never exactly stating what he was apologizing for, but asking for forgiveness nonetheless.
All we”ve really learned from all this is that Tiger Woods is human, and like all humans, he has made mistakes. A long time ago Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Walter Hagen did less-than-stellar things. It”s just that private occurrences were hushed up in those days. Golfer Jesper Parnevik, who introduced his nanny, Elin, to her future husband, has taken a decidedly harsh tone, stating, “We probably thought he was a better guy than he is,” adding, “I hope she uses a driver next time instead of a 3-iron.” On the other side of the spectrum, Woods” Presidents Cup partner, Steve Sticker, took the high road, stating, “Do we really need to know?”
When all is said and done, this too will pass, just as it did for Kobe Bryant. It may never be the same for Mr. And Mrs. Eldrick Woods, but for fans of the game, Tiger will remain the PGA”s top draw as he closes in on Jack Nicklaus” record of 18 major championship titles. For many of his fans, they just know a little bit more about the private life of a very public person.
As for me, I really don”t care. I”ve always known that Tiger Woods is human, warts and all. After all, Charlie Pierce told me so.
