Did you realize Tiger Woods is/was a cultural icon?

[undeterred]

Poll question: Did you realize Tiger Woods is/was a cultural icon?

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. There's a big distance between "cultural icon" and "civilization can't continue without him"

so it's pretty clear you don't want anyone to actually answer 'yes'.

[undeterred]

4. I can't understand why his screwing around is front page news.

[Shell Beau]

37. Exactly. He is a culutural icon, but I mean I can go on living without him.

[goclark]

2. Tiger is a world icon ~

[Hawkeye-X]

3. Where's the option for "Don't care"

?

My wife was asking me the same question.

[undeterred]

5. ABC "world news" starts out talking about him

I have never watched him nor do I look up to athletes as anything other than athletes.

[StarfarerBill]

35. Ditto.

[walldude]

6. Who cares?

All I know is he cheated on his wife, and unlike say Mark Sanford who is still fucking governor, he may lose his livelyhood because of it. Yes he's an idiot. Does he deserve this? No. He deserves to be left alone to deal with his problems.

When the news came on the radio toady Tiger was the number one story. Talk about a nation with fucked up priorities..

[JVS]

7. It's weird because he's the Jackie Robinson of golf. Which is like being the Jackie Robinson of...

monster trucks or roller derby.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that he broke one of the last barriers in sports, but it was in a sport that has very little relevance to society. Golf sucks.

[AngryAmish]

8. Lee Elder looks at you funny, walks away shaking his head

[JVS]

10. Ooops. How could I possibly forget Lee Elders! Ok. So what is important about Woods?

I apologize for my ignorance of golfers from before my time. But I guarantee that there are many others who would make the same mistake, and doesn't that help to prove my point about people not giving a shit about golf?

[AngryAmish]

13. Calvin Peete gives you the finger as he drives by...

[Captain Hilts]

21. Chi Chi Rodriguez and Jim Dent give you the OP the skunkeye too!

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

16. Probably because he's the greatest golfer of all time.....

......in a sport that is 99.99% made up of white dudes.

[JVS]

17. Yeah, I don't follow golf. I've seen Woods on TV commercials though.

For me golf has always been one of those things that my father put on TV and I left the room because it was too boring to tolerate

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

19. Never cared much for it

Although my family is a bunch of golfers, especially my grandmother who golfed once a week until she was 90.

To me, any interest in watching golf on tv is ruined by the fact that Tiger's existence makes most tournaments a foregone conclusion.

[onenote]

39. thus demonstrating one source of hostillity to Tiger

Even before the scandal, it seems that if you had asked DUers what they thought of Tiger a lot of them would have reacted negatively.Why? Because he's such a dominant force. Many people like to root for the underdog. TIger not only was the ultimate anti-underdog, he crushed the underdogs time and again.

I admit that I sometimes have rooted for someone to make a successful challenge to Tiger. But there is no denying his skill and faulting him for being the best at what he does seems pretty silly.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

40. Yeah, I do like to root for the underdog, is that a bad thing?

I hate both the Yankees and Red Sox, can't stand the Patriots, would love to see TCU or Boise State win the BCS and Butler win the NCAA B-ball tourney.

And I have no doubt if Tiger was in the Vijay Singh or Phil Mickelson role, I'd root for him. But I also probably wouldn't watch if the superman who was beating him was doing it week in and week out to the point there was no real suspense except for one or two weeks a year. Golf simply doesn't interest me enough to marvel over one guy's skill. Same with tennis when it comes to Federer and before him Sampras. Great players, but the sport only interests me if it's competitive. The technical skill required doesn't.

I will still watch the other sports even if it seems like the "best team" has it locked up because I prefer them.

[onenote]

41. not at all, although "hating" a team because of its success seems a bit silly

Generally, when I root for an underdog, I root for them to do well, not for the favorite to do badly. In a sport like football or baseball, where the performance of one team is related to the performance of the other team, that's a bit more complicated -- I'm rooting for the underdog team to make a big play, although implicitly that means I'm rooting for the favorite team to fail to make an equally big play to stop the underdog. In tennis, it means rooting for the underdog to make a great shot, not rooting for the favorite to double fault.

And in a sport like golf it means rooting for the underdog to make great shots, not for the favorite to miss easy putts.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

43. I generally don't hate teams for their success......

....there is usually something behind that success I don't like. With baseball, it's the ridiculous money spent by the best teams....with the Patriots, it's some of the suspicious activity their coach engages in......

A lot of the reason Tiger and Federer bore me is the fact the media hypes it and makes them the reason to watch and screw everyone else. I don't hate them for it, but I'm not going to watch them anyway......

[Raine]

9. The guy hits a stationary ball

with a stick and that makes him a "cultural icon" ... not in my world. x(

[JVS]

11. He has a lot of mistresses.

That makes him a cultural icon in my book.

[undeterred]

12. He has so many mistresses

that he needs to take an indefinite period off from golf in order to spend more time with each of them, especially the ones that are feeling a little neglected. Its a lot for one man to juggle with a high octane sports career.

[JVS]

14. I salute his decision to prioritize people rather than a game

[Deja Q]

23. He played them as a game, however

[Deja Q]

22. I'm sure he has a lot of STDs too.

Probably gave a lot of them to others as well.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

15. Yes, he is a cultural icon......

....as "cultural icons" go in today's society. Much of that is media created, and marketed very carefully though. Which is why it has fallen apart so quickly.

....and society will get along fine without him.....

[Bluenorthwest]

18. I knew he was a picket line crossing scab

Does that count?

[Deja Q]

20. So he can hit a ball with a stick. As for an icon,

I've got a whole bunch of them right there. :D

[csziggy]

24. Tiger Woods is a corporate icon

Which is why the corporate news is so filled with news about his downfall. Golf is totally corporate driven. It was the first sport I remember in which every event was named as a "Corporate Golf Tournament" rather than the name of the event being the advertised title.

I agree with Bill Cosby about golf: Golf is Dumb

George Carlin had a good theory about golf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C7c-nZIyfc

[BlueJazz]

25. I can't print what my Neighbor lady says about Tiger. (She's a good-looking black Lady)

It's Nasty and I mean really nasty.

[Cetacea]

26. I do know that he is not the greatest athelete of all time.

I don't believe golf is much of a sport.

Besides, I believe some nice guy from Switzerland is the greatest of all time. :)

[Iggo]

31. No defense, and it's played dressed in "office casual."

That ain't no sport...lol.

[undeterred]

34. The sand and the wind are defense.

[Iggo]

38. Nope. Those are field conditions.

[aikoaiko]

27. There is no icon the world can't live without. but he is a cultural icon

He raised the level of golf much the same way Jordan did for b-ball or Clay/Ali did for boxing.

[Terra Alta]

28. Golf is very boring.

And so is Tiger Woods! I wasn't interested in him before his affairs, and I'm sure not interested in him now!

[EmeraldCityGrl]

29. As far as sex scandals go

this is the most boring one that comes to memory.

[Holly_Hobby]

30. Maybe among rich, white elites and loose women n/t

[harkadog]

32. Yet another loaded poll.

[liberalhistorian]

33. I've never had a high opinion of him, he's always seemed

to me to be an arrogant shallow phoney-baloney. Sad for his wife and children that he's proved that to be correct.

[mitchum]

36. True, but he has always had all the charisma of a shoe

The most boring pitchman the world has ever known

[SoCalDem]

42. Tiger is just another in a long line of little kids whose parents

micro-managed their "careers" from diapers-to-adulthood..(think Jackson5, Brittney Spears, Brooke Shields, Patty Duke, etc)..

These kids were never "allowed" to grow up to be whatever THEY wanted to be..

I am NOT excusing his nasty behavior, but he's never had a normal life, so why would anyone expect him to behave "normally"?

No doubt, his "handlers" told him he needed a family,, so he got a family..

His main mistake is not the cheating.. it's the marriage.. Had he not gotten married and pretended to be the "family-man", none of this would have mattered..he would just be another "player"..