Tiger Woods is Not the Best

In Fact, Tiger Woods is the worst! Clearly he's the best golfer in the world, possibly even the best athlete in the world. But Tiger Woods made some comments last week that have me thinking slightly less of him.

When asked during the Stanley Cup Finals if he was rooting for the Penguins or the Red Wings, Woods response was "I don't really care. Let's talk about the Dodgers." Woods followed up his answer with "I don't think anybody really watches hockey anymore."

While I don't mind Woods' honesty, I have to steal a line from South Park's Mr. Jefferson character and say "that's ignorant." Not only were the ratings for the NHL Playoffs up from recent years, but this years championship series was one for the ages. Not only did we see one of the sports most storied franchises competing, we also got to see the league's savior, LeBron on ice if you may, Sidney Crosby, playing for his first Stanley Cup...just three seasons into his career.

The match-up wasn't the only sexy thing about the NHL. Look at how the series ended, the Penguins' desperation allowing them to make it into a series after going down 2 games, the triple overtime game 5, Marc-Andre Fleury notching 55 saves in one game(!), if anything, hockey's back.

Now I'm no Happy Gilmore, in fact, since the last NHL lockout in the 04-05 season I've probably spent more time watching the Mighty Ducks trilogy (please tell me they stopped after D3) than I have actual NHL hockey, but that's only because it's hard to keep up with a major sport that endures two lockouts in less than a decade. Growing up I was a huge hockey fan. Heck, I even thought hockey was the best live sport to go to, and I probably still feel pretty close to that sentiment.

I'm dying to give Hockey another chance, and I think this season was the last reason that I needed to do so. It would help if my Islanders weren't consistently terrible, but just because the Islanders are bad doesn't mean hockey is...which leads me back to Tiger.

Just because Tiger's good doesn't mean golf is. I mean, how many people don't care what's happening when Tiger isn't part of the field? Of all people to trash hockey, a golfer? Really? Even if that golfer is the best ever (if not now, when it's all said and done he sure will be), who is he to be talking about hockey? The NHL used to be the fourth major sport, and even though NASCAR is the nation's most popular sport, the icecapade is a lot closer to regaining that fourth spot than the retirement sport.

Would you rather watch ice skating or standing on grass? Would you rather see a triple deke, or a small ball hit into a small hole? Five for fighting or a stroke behind for hitting the ball into the water? Golf is a lot more entertaining than I'm giving it credit for, but for a golfer to so blatantly put down one of the most exciting, not to mention rebounding, sports bothers me. It would be like Tom Cruise saying nobody cares about Robert Downey Jr. Come on, Iron Man may have taken a hiatus for personal reasons, but he's back and better than ever. Give the man his due.

Tiger Woods, give the NHL it's due. Too many real athletes are working too hard to be put-down by someone of Tiger's stature. As I write this, Tiger is leading the pack after three days, and can win his third U.S. Open tomorrow, not to mention his 14th major. Tiger is clearly what sports fans refer to in modern day terms as a beast. But if you take Tiger out of those 13 major tournaments that he's already won, and give them to 13 different Lee Westwoods, Stuart Applebys, and D.J. Trahans, who really cares about golf? Is there someone else making countless Nike commercials? How about EA Sports Video Games? Golf can only live off of Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus for so long.

Again, I can't take anything away from Tiger, he's pretty much the man. But I think he really put his foot in his mouth here. Maybe he just hasn't watched any hockey lately, I'm sure he isn't the only one. But if he thinks he's amongst the majority, and that that same majority's watching golf, then the perfectionist has encountered an imperfection.