Tiger Woods ran his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant, then hit a hedge, all because he was apparently trying to escape his wife, who was chasing him down the driveway of their Orlando, Florida home. That was in late November, around 2.30 in the morning, and until last week nobody has seen Tiger Woods or heard from him. Somebody said he was spending his days playing video games, watching cartoons and eating Fruit Loops.
I have not been around forever, but I can never ever remember any athlete falling so swiftly from grace as Tiger Woods has. Or disappear for so long from the public eye. He has lost millions of dollars in endorsement money, his reputation is shredded and his wife, Elin, and their two children, have been humiliated in front of the world by all the women who have waddled forth to claim that they too had an affair with Tiger Woods the golfer. It's beyond a Dirty Dozen, we're told.
I spent many years in the newspaper business, and there were so many highlights. But one that I always looked back on with a certain sense of fondness and awe was the luck I had. I spent a day in the early 1970s with Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer of them all. In the 1980s, I visited Edmonton many times to watch the Edmonton Oilers and Wayne Gretzky win four Stanley Cups, Gretzky was perhaps the greatest to ever play the game, and watching him in person and talking to him after games was a definite thrill that I took for granted at the time.
In the summer of 2006, my wife and I went to England and Scotland. We spent four days at the British Open at Hoylake outside of Liverpool, and watched Tiger Woods sweep away the competition and run away with his second straight British Open championship. He once walked within five feet of me as he went a green to the next tee box, saying "Thank you" to those who were cheering for him.
The one thing I always felt about Ali, Gretzky and Woods was they represented the best of their times in the best of ways. No more. Tiger Woods may still be a great golfer, but that's about it. The man who proclaimed often that "Family is the most important thing to me," dragged them through the mud with his rampant infidelities in a story that will be around forever and which his children will have to live with.
If there is one thing that the greatest of athletes seemed nearly always to possess, it was a humility and a sense of responsibility to their fans. Even Ali, when he was out of the glare of the cameras, was a quiet spoken man with a genuine affection for his fans. I remember accompanying him to a children's hospital ward in Calgary. He was supposed to only be there for half an hour. He stayed for two hours, visiting and laughing with sick children who likely hadn't smiled or laughed that much in days. And when his people did finally convince him he had to leave and go elsewhere, he refused to go until he had talked to every child on the ward.
Gretzky was the same, and is to this day. He signs autographs when asked, no matter how long the lineup. He will carry on conversations with people he has never met before. I can recall having dinner with Wayne's parents, Walter and Phyliss, when they came to Regina on a book signing tour. The book's authour, Jim Taylor of Vancouver, was unable to make the Regina date so he phoned me. "They don't know anybody in Regina," he said. "Would you take them out for dinner?
We spent three hours, maybe more, at the Diplomat Restaurant, talking about everything, and when the night was over, I knew why Wayne Gretzky was who he was.
I can remember flying to Los Angeles with my two boys to go to Disneyland. We had a layover in the Calgary Airport. The Los Angeles Kings were on the same flight.
"Dad," my son said to me, "Wayne Gretzky is here." Gretzky was standing behind the ticket counter. I told my son to go introduce himself. He did. Gretzky told him to come up to first class once the flight took off.
When we had reached our desired altitude, Gretzky opened the curtain, and waved to my son to come up. They talked, and then Wayne posed with my son for a picture. When we had landed, he came over to the kids and told them what rides they should go on at Disneyland.
You know, in the four days I watched Tiger Woods in the British Open, he never once paused to sign an autograph. He just kept on going. He wasn't rude, or anything like that, just cold and detached.
You know, Muhammad Ali's father never said he would save the world. Walter Gretzky never said that. Tiger Woods' father did. He said Woods would grow bigger than golf, and would become the next Ghandi. From that day on, Tiger Woods has lived in a vacuum, away from the real world, oblivious to the responsibilities of being not only a great athlete, but also a good father and husband.
He has missed the boat, he has betrayed all of those close to him, all those who supported him, and there is a certain sadness attached to it. There really is.
