This Tiger Tale's Far Fetched

Hats off to Tiger Woods for winning the PGA Championship, his second major of the year and 12th of his career. He is once again at the top of the golfing world, and the gap between 1st and 2nd is massive. But I've had about all I can take in the last few days in terms of where Tiger Woods fits in terms of alltime sports figures.

Tiger Woods is NOT the Greatest Athlete of Alltime.

Sorry to rain on your parade, Tiger fans, but I've seen way too much BS about Eldrick being better than Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Jim Browne... the list goes on and on. Is that some sort of joke?

For starters, the greatest athlete of alltime is going to have to play a sport that's a little more physically demanding than golf. A lot of people will tell you that golf's not even a sport. I'm not one of them. But if you want to compare the physical demands of football, basketball, hockey, soccer, and a number of other sports to hitting a golf ball, you're seriously on the pipe. Mentally strenuous? No question. Pressure packed? For sure. Hand-eye cordination? Yep. But don't even try and tell me that a sport in which there's nobody else trying to prevent you from doing what you want (ie. playing defense) is home to the greatest athlete the world has ever seen.

If you want to pose an argument that Tiger is the Most Popular Athlete of Alltime, I'll listen.

Maybe you say he's dominated his sport to a greater extent than other athletes have dominated theirs. It's a decent and rational debate.

Hell, I'm even willing to hear that he's had more impact on the future of his sport than other athletes.

But that's where it stops. In my short lifetime, I've seen the likes of MJ, Bo Jackson, Gretzky, Barry Sanders, Deion Sanders - you get the idea - all perform feats that are FAR more impressive from an athletic standpoint than what Tiger is doing. And I don't even scratch the surface of what many of my elders have been able to witness. So stop with your Tiger worship in terms of this argument. You just won't sell me on it.

It'll take a couple more years to make it official, but Woods will go down as the greatest golfer in the history of the game. But unless I see him turn a swing pass into a 90 yard touchdown, dunk over Lebron James in the NBA Final or bat .450 and steal 105 bases in a season, he won't even come close to being in any argument I ever make for the greatest athlete of alltime.