LITTLE ROCK — He’s not Pacman, T.O., ARod or even Ron Artest.
Yet, Tiger Woods seems to have become just about the biggest villain in the world of sports.
For his part, what he did was wrong, and when he cheated on his wife, he cheated on his children, his mother and all his fans.
Cheating is always plural, never singular.
And maybe he was more arrogant and aloof to his fellow golfers than was allowed to be seen because his image then was definitely good for the PGA and the game of golf.
Lately, his cursing and temper tantrums are broadcast live for the entire world to see, and all the people who had put him on a pedestal are shocked, some sincerely.
Now, he seems like he’s become the most disliked athlete in the world, and if that is true, some of the resentment must be born from jealousy.
Until the news broke of Woods’ multiple affairs, he was seen as the all-American kid who grew into the all-American man.
He was the kid who was so good at golf, so athletic, he appeared on The Mike Douglas Show at age 2 and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson when he was 4.
He attended Stanford, an academic factory instead of an athletic one.
He openly wept in public when his father died.
He celebrated victory with an enthusiastic pumping of his fist and endured defeat with a grimace.
There wasn’t a shot he couldn’t make or a course he couldn’t tame, and it was a privilege to see him in person or on TV.
Every year, he seemed to get better, and every year, he was pushed farther up on the pedestal until he finally lost sight of who he really is, which was a role model to much of the world.
Woods didn’t get arrested for drugs or driving under the influence. He didn’t get in fights. He wasn’t hanging out all hours of the night.
What he did was go out every week and on worldwide television display skills and abilities that were the best ever.
The fame that came with being the No. 1 player in the world made him more and more of a prisoner. Maybe he wanted to live a private life, but the truth was he didn’t have a choice.
So everyone was shocked when the stories broke of his unfaithfulness because there had been no public clue that type of behavior existed in his psyche.
Everyone accepted the fact that he couldn’t hang out at the local Dairy Queen, that he had to live behind a gated home in a gated community.
He hawked Buicks, underwear and, of course, Nike, and in the process, he became a billionaire. Which means unless he does a Nicolas Cage, he couldn’t spend all his money, nor could his children.
Money, though, can change people, and somewhere along the line, he apparently thought he had become invisible, invincible and irresistible.
When he withdrew from The Players Championship on Sunday with neck pain, all types of jokes were made about him believing he had a bulging disk in his neck.
Cruel, mean-spirited jokes.
What was missed was that after he withdrew, the security people who had been following Woods - reportedly FBI agents , sheriff’s officers and extra volunteers - disappeared .
If he has feds following him, it sounds like he’s received a threat. If that’s the case, that would explain why a taunting fan was Tasered and taken away. That’s the only acceptable explanation, too.
If cheating on your spouse was punishable by death, there would not only be a lot less people around, but a lot less cheating, too.
Woods, who looks miserable, made mistakes, perhaps including being arrogant and aloof.
He’s lost the respect of many golfers, former fans and much of the general public, and what happens to him now is totally up to him.
Sports, Pages 15 on 05/11/2010