Round 1 Rebuttal

This rebuttal is a little anti-climatic with Rafa Nadal's exit from the French Open yesterday afternoon; however, it is worth noting Nadal's run at the French Open was both impressive and historic.  Nadal had won 4 straight French Open titles and a record 31 consecutive matches at Roland Garros.  As Carly Pumpkin points out in her post, Nadal burst onto the scene at 19 and won his first French Open title in his first attempt.  Until yesterday, Nadal had never lost at the French Open, never.  This is simply incredible and is one of those achievements that should be appreciated by those who watch and enjoy sports.  While I still contend that Nadal is not the savior that tennis needs, I did underestimate the fact that Nadal's game and talent does inspire others while bringing notoriety to the sport.  We all need heroes and clearly Nadal has gotten Carly to not only watch tennis, but she is also now playing tennis as well.  I'm sure there are others like Carly.  This in many ways speaks to an athlete's influence.  That said, Carly just had to go there.  She had to go after Tiger Woods.  Yeah this a bad idea.  Now I'm fired-up and I'm about to go all Obama Administration on this post and start spending words like they are going out of style.

Tiger Woods is the man.  The dude is amazing.  There is a reason why he tops my annual power rankings of dudes I would "change teams for."  The lists reads like this:

2008 

5. Lupe Fiasco

4. Lincoln O. Cyrus (Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder)

3. Leonardo DiCaprio

2. Batman

1. Tiger Woods

2009 (Projected)

5.  Undecided

4. Bradley Cooper

3. Justin Timberlake

2. Kenny Powers

1. Tiger Woods

While I marvel at Woods' skills and abilities, the man's mental toughness and will to win is the greatest I have ever seen.  And yes Carly, as Steve correctly points out in the comments section of your blog, Woods has been known to drop a few f-bombs and throw a fews clubs to the ground in disgust.  Throw in the fact that Woods practically wrote the book on fist pumps and well he isn't quite the "snoozefest" you make him out to be.  Look at all these fist pumps....

                               

No one. I mean no one wants to win more than Woods. Since he was a child, Woods has set his sights on Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 Major Championships.  As Woods hits the prime of his career with 14 major titles already on the mantle, that record seems to be within his sights.  Plus you don't win a US Open by 15 shots and a Masters by 12 shots without having killer instincts when it comes to winning.  Growing-up, I thought was witnessing the greatest competitor ever in Michael Jordan.  There were nights that Jordan just had that look in his eye that said, "nobody is going to beat me tonight."  As great as Jordan was, Tiger Woods might be even greater.  Tiger Woods is the rarest of athletes that only comes around once a generation.  

My personal fixation with Tiger Woods aside, the numbers do not lie when it comes to Woods' greatness and influence.  I appreciate Nadal has influenced individuals like Carly, but for every one person Nadal influences Woods does the same for about 10,000 people.  While the number might not be accurate, Woods' popularity and influence is almost unmatched. When Woods busted open the door at the 1997 Masters winning in record setting fashion, golf suddenly became cool.  People of all ages were headed to golf courses for the first time because of Woods.  Golf was long viewed as a game for the economic and social elite, but Woods changed all that.  Golf became a game for the masses.  Woods was and is the people's champion. The landscape of professional golf is different due to the arrival of Woods as well.  Tournament sponsorship went way up, TV ratings sky rocketed, and tournament pursues are astronomically higher than they were 12 years ago.  Woods has transcended the game of golf in every sense of the word. 

It is also no coincidence that Woods himself tops Forbes annual list of highest paid athletes and second is not even close.  Everybody wants a piece of this guy.  Woods is the single most recognizable athlete in the world. Period.  The dude has his own video game, his own Gatorade flavor, his own golf tournament, and places like Dubai pay him a cool $25M to develop a golf course.  Yes, Rafa is great and maybe one day he may achieve iconic status.  For now, it is Tiger's world and Rafa is just living in it.

P.S. I will try to have a Morning Coffee for Tuesday, but Wednesday is more likely.