A Tiger's Tale

Stevie Wonder could see it coming. I sat with popcorn and Pepsi and waited to see the show. The tabloids (hagrags really).Tiger's attempts to save his wholesome family image have long been flushed away. His father would be so disappointed.

Knowing that he is partly African American, we are quadruply disappointed. Because of his youth, we forgave him when he denied his "peeps" and called himself "Cablinasian". Apparently, he never learned about the one-drop rule. We were mildly amused when he discovered that he was black after not being allowed to participate in a tournament.

Life was good for Tiger and the louder he roared, the higher he soared. We were as proud of him as any parent. We supported him, learned all we could about golf so that we would understand why he wasn't just one of the best, but THE BEST. We all learned more about golf because of Tiger than any other sport. We were in awe.

A private man, we became accustomed to his shy manner and short, awkward speeches. But the world loved Tiger. We poured over magazines about his relationship with his parents to determine how to raise little tigers of our own. Endorsements rolled in, money piled into the stratosphere and all was right in Tiger's world. Tiger's father was a role model for Black men who wanted to raise focused, intelligent, articulate Black men. The Woods clan could do no wrong.

And then the inevitable happened. Tiger met and then married Elin Nordegren. I don't know who was more upset -Black women, Asian women. After all of our support and encouragement, we were looked over, looked past, looked beyond. He became more and more the stereotypical athlete. That should have been a warning sign.

Elin immediately seized the opportunity to solidify her future earnings by having not one, but two children. Meanwhile, Tiger passed the billion dollar mark in earnings, the most of any athlete. In the media, he could do no wrong. We noticed a few things were going amiss, but no one spoke publically. His game was off. The eye of the tiger was distracted. Adjusting to family life, we thought, was taking its toll and in no time at all, he would be the Tiger that we loved. His father died; we mourned with him. Everything seemed fairly settled.

And as quickly as Tiger became a household name, the house (or should we say the Navigator) came crashing down around him. Shoeless, dazed and confused. Broken windows and stories that just didn't add up.

The endorsements began to dry up almost as quickly as Elin pulled away from the home with the children and moving vans. Now the speculation begins. What happened to Tiger? How did he get over on the entire world. Another family is hurt by the actions of someone once respected and loved above all others. For too long, Tiger Woods was just too good to be true. He was lifted up and he failed.

Someone so obviously gifted, so incredibly awesome was humbled by an overzealous ego. No one should have been surprised, and yet we, who loved Tiger without limits, were mortified. All men, no matter how brilliant, have clay feet. All men have the capacity for failure and disappointment.

Is this the beginning of the end of the Woods dynasty? Who knows? This tale is now as common as all the others. We are learning to accept that Tiger Woods is human afterall.