Tiger Woods Thinks Soccer's For Pussies

Reporter: "You kind of made reference to it earlier, 20 years until you've got to ride in a cart. I am kind of curious where you see yourself at 50. Are you still trying to add to your major totals, or are you a soccer dad or what do you see?"

Tiger Woods: "No, not soccer (laughter). Hopefully Pop Warner or something more physical than soccer. I know Elin will probably get mad at me for saying that, but who knows."

You heard it right, the famous blasian (I think I just coined a term there) who makes his rather generous living playing golf thinks that soccer isn't physical enough for his children. Either I didn't get the memo on Adam Sandler joining the tour, or cocktail hour in between rounds is full-contact. What's next, Veselin Topalov, undisputed world champion of chess, calling basketball players pussies?

Worse in my mind, Tiger Woods, the man credited with taking a sport from niche to mainstream, especially with America's youth, is apparently not so keen on his children playing a sport that is attempting to make a similar transition. For a man so careful about image-management, I'm surprised he'd make such a comment, especially at such a pivotal point in American soccer.

Honestly, I've been surprised at the image Tiger Woods has developed over the years. Let's remember that this is the same kid who was raised by his often poorly regarded father to do one thing, succeed at a single sport. I don't think we should expect too much from golf's version of Todd Marinovich, the ill-fated, can't miss, USC player raised by his father to be the ultimate quarterback. While Tiger obviously hasn't matched Mr. Marinovich's police record, I'm not quite convinced we should consider him to be any different than any other successful athlete.

Okay, he went to Stanford, and maybe I'm just annoyed with a golfer calling soccer out as not a physical sport.

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