Let's Stop Making Tiger Woods and Other Athletes Out to be Icons

It's time we start putting the right people on the pedestal for our kids to look up to

If you've ever seen Tiger Woods in person, you know he's the type that commands your immediate attention. Heck, you could be talking filmmaking with Brad Pitt and you'd turn and stare at Tiger if he walked into the room.

But I got to tell you, I'm sick of Tiger. I'm sick of seeing and hearing his name in the headlines. I'm tired of the jokes.

I have to admit, Tiger was once bigger than life in my eyes. I've seen him in person a few times, the latest at a press conference at Muirfield Village Golf Club last June. When he walked in the press room, Tiger lit it up like Las Vegas. Media members stopped talking and stared at Woods as he took his seat. They were excited to be in his presence. Me, too. I told more than a few friends that I attended a press conference with Tiger Woods.

I don't feel that way now about Tiger or any athlete, for that matter. Yes, the married Woods messing around (allegedly) with more than a dozen women has much to do with it. Now, I'm not condemning Tiger; that's not my place. I am, though, throwing cold water on this whole "entitlement" thing. That's one of the lame reasons he was fooling around, right, because he's an icon who can? He — the star athlete, the debonaire billionaire — messed around because he's not Joe Schmoe. He's Tiger Woods!

I'm so tired of this "entitlement" garbage with some professional athletes. After hearing Woods' voicemail to the one mistress — and that he was worried about getting caught — it was clear to me where Woods was coming from. There wasn't an ounce of guilt in his voice then. But now that he has been busted, he's telling everyone who will listen that he's sorry.

And maybe he is. I don't know, and I don't care. It's none of my business. I hope Tiger can work it out for the sake of his two young kids, who he'll have a lot of explaining to do when they get older.

But I've learned my lesson: I'll no longer put any athlete on a pedestal. They're just athletes, after all. They make mistakes like all human beings. People say they're role models, but they're not. They make mistakes, just like Joe Schmoe. And in some cases, their mistakes are far worse than Joe Schmoe's.

But today, the start of the Masters, the media circus at Augusta National will be one clown short of a Barnum & Bailey circus because Tiger is returning to golf.

Meanwhile, nobody will hear nothing about the real heroes and role models of our world, such as those people whose sole aim in life is to make life better for the less fortunate. Those are the people I want my kids looking up to

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