Tiger Woods' failure to come clean right at the onset of his domestic difficulties is proving to be a disastrous mistake.  When Tiger failed to fess up, the tabloids kept on digging, providing daily revelations of Woodsian infidelity, suggestions of hush-money, and clear proof that Tiger clearly doesn't have the best management team that money can buy.

Who is making the decisions at Team Tiger?

Perhaps Tiger is complicating matters by not providing a full disclosure to his team of the full breadth of the indiscretions that are likely to surface.  Of course if the suddenly wealthier cuckquean, Elin, is sitting in on the conversations, there is no chance Tiger can put all the cards on the table for the management team to strategize a way out of the morass.

That whining, whirring noise you hear in the background is coming from Manhattan, Kansas where Earl Dennison Woods is spinning in his grave.  A formidable athlete in his own right, and a Green Beret to boot, Tiger's father was a combination father, drill sargeant, and golf coach to Tiger with a dash of Colonel Tom Parker thrown in. 

Colonel Parker (born Andreas Cornelis "Dries" van Kuijk) was Elvis Presley's quirkly but brilliant manager.  Perhaps the most illuminating quote from Parker came when he was notified of the death of his client while working at the Presley management office.  He stopped all activity in the office to announce that "This changes nothing!"

Well, the revelation of Tiger's whore-dog behavior and the full-fledged media onslaught that has ensued seems to be changing everything for the former media-darling.  Perhaps a re-branding is in order.  Or better yet, perhaps a return to the principles Tiger learned at the feet of Earl.

With ample reason to be a proud father, Earl once suggested that Tiger would "transcend the sport and change the world in a way that Nelson Mandela and Gandi never did."   In the light of recent disclosures about Tiger, that father's faithful dream seems laughable now.  Earl even dreamt that the Woods family's modest home in Cypress where Tiger grew up might be turned into a sort of golf Graceland.

Clearly Tiger has lost sight of the values and standards Earl tried to instill in him.  At the Fred Haskins award dinner in 1996 where Tiger received the award for the outstanding college golfer of the year, Earl was quoted:

"He will transcend this game and bring to the world a humanitarianism which has never been known before," Earl said haltingly, choking back tears. "The world will be a better place to live in by virtue of his existence and his presence. I acknowledge only a small part in that I know that I was personally selected by God himself to nurture this young man and bring him to the point where he can make a contribution to humanity. This is my treasure. Please accept it and use it wisely." www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,2...

Those proud remarks seem to come from a galaxy far, far away. Maybe it's time for Tiger and his management team to ask:

What would Earl do?

When confronted with a controversial pickle not dissimilar to the one we find the suddenly reclusive Tiger Woods amidst, Henry Ford II was arrogantly glib.  Hank the Deuce, longtime Chairman of the Ford Motor Company was arrested in California early one morning with a woman other than his wife in tow.  Ford was driving while intoxicated to boot.

While working his way out of the situation, Ford was called upon to make a speech at the Detroit Economic Club. When he was quizzed about the unseemly entanglement he had gotten himself into, he fell back upon a quote attributed to Benjamin Disraeli:

   "Never Complain, Never Explain."

To this fulsome bromide, Tiger might add: Or show your face in public.  Clearly Tiger's sponsors don't want to have photos of Tiger sporting the wrath of Elin floating around the blogosphere.  We could call it the Ostrich defense of maybe the groundhog defense:  just bury your head in the dirt and eventually the trouble will go away. 

Not this time it won't.

Now Tiger wasn't caught in flagrante delicto or anything.  Apparently the tabloid suggestion of a Woodsian infidelity put the kibosh on the warmth and fuzziness of the Tiger family's Thanksgiving.   The crashing finale of the domestic dispute at Chez Woods was explained away to the enabling Florida Highway Patrol in a preposterous story that doesn't begin to add up.  After initially giving Woods a pass, the FHP, with massive egg on their collective face, is beginning to dig around in the background and may come up with a seach warrant to discover the reports from the hospital where Tiger was taken to treat his "serious" injuries.

Tiger's website statement regarding the incident is wholly self-serving and dishonest.  A small sample is enough:

"the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible.

The only person responsible for the accident is me."

The only truth therein is that Tiger is the one responsible for all the heat-seeking missives heading his way.   Seeking honest answers to questions being evaded or spun is the responsiblity of journalists.  Trouble is, Tiger has only experienced the butt-kissing, policitically correct sportswriting hacks who swoon at his every appearance.   Even Jason Whitlock has gotten the Tiger love-bug.  The fact remains that Woods is both responsible for the events that transpired and responsible to clear the air.  The questions won't go away.

There will be intrepid journalists willing to bear the anticipated wrath of Tiger's PGA protectors to get an answer to the many lingering questions that remain for many months to come.  Or at least try to get a rise out of Tiger.

And what about the increasingly rowdy crowds that populate the PGA tour events?  Cries of "You Da Man" will be replaced by "Watch out for that Fire Hydrant" or "Hey Scratchface" or some fresher adolescent cruelty.  For a guy that can't handle the click of a shutter in his backswing, it's about to get infinitely worse. 

Tiger can avoid the questions for awhile.  He can skip a tournament or two.  But unless he gets off his right to privacy horse on this huge pecadillo, he has just erected the biggest obstacle possible to his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 major victories.  Coupled with Tiger's 0-for 2009 major whiff, I'd say it's time to start betting the under.

So one of the greatest athletes in the world is unable to navigate the treacherous arc of his driveway and has to be rescued by his wife?   Mrs. Woods breaks the rear window of Tiger’s 2009 Escalade to free him and the police arrive to find Tiger “in and out of consciousness” on the ground?   All of this most unusual activity takes place at 2:25 a.m. with the same guy who can thread a 1 iron through the fork of a sapling and onto the green 250 yards away but suddenly he is unable to negotiate an Escalade around the same fire hydrant and tree he zips by every time he leaves home.

The first report out of the Florida Highway Patrol sounds like it was written by the same disinterested apologists that covered the Ft. Hood jihadist’s escapades:

    “FHP said the crash is still under investigation. It said alcohol did not play a role in the crash, but that charges are pending.” www.wesh.com/news/21740162/detail.html?t...

Right.  And the Ft. Hood shootings weren’t terrorism.  We know how this works.

I submit that the glowing adulation Woods receives from sportswriters and the kid-glove treatment he is receiving from the FHP  is based every bit as much on political correctness as the willful blindness of the FBI, the U.S. Army,  and the colluding media have been regarding the terrorist acts at Ft. Hood.

How many red flags does this protected apple of the media’s eye have to unfurl before we get the truth about what Tiger Woods was doing driving out of control at 2 o’clock in the morning? 

“The accident report was not released until nearly 12 hours after Woods was injured. Patrol spokesman Kim Montes said the accident did not meet the criteria of a serious crash, and the FHP only put out a press release because of inquiries from local media.”

Investigators still have not had a chance to speak to Woods, but when they do, "we will ask him everything," Montes said. "We just haven't had a chance to do so because he was being medically treated."

Left unanswered was where Woods was going at that hour. Greenspan and agent Mark Steinberg said there would be no comment beyond the short statement of the accident on Woods' Web site.” news.yahoo.com/s/ap/glf_woods_accident

As one might expect, the alternative media continues to do the work that the criminal justice system won’t do.  TMZ provides a late update giving some needed perspective:

“Multiple law enforcement sources tell TMZ Tiger Woods' early morning accident came right after an argument with his wife, Elin Nordegren.
We're told Elin told cops about the argument at the scene of the accident and Tiger gave the same story to authorities at the hospital where he was treated.
One Florida law enforcement official called it "a domestic issue.

UPDATE -- We're told the Florida Highway Patrol went to Tiger's house this afternoon to talk to him about the accident -- but they were turned away by his wife, who said he was sleeping. The FHP plans to try and talk to Woods again tomorrow. “  www.tmz.com/2009/11/27/tiger-woods-fight...

Is this standard operating procedure for the Florida Highway Patrol?  Would the FHP allow your wife to shoo away the investigating officers who came to your door?

Considering the National Enquirer's report of an alleged affair between Tiger and Rachel Uchitel, (see photo and story here) topgelato.com/photo-rachel-uchitel-and-t... the possibility of a heated exchange seems likely.

We just need to know two things:

1.)  Were sobriety tests administered at the scene of the accident or at the hospital?

2.)  When did Elin break out that window and why did she do it?

Looks like Tiger's got lots more 'splaining to do.

Looks like Bill Belichik might be willing to take over the diaper-changing duties for embittered and waived former Kansas City Chiefs running back, Larry Johnson.  Forced upon Dick Vermeil as the 27th pick in the 2003 draft, the former Penn State star got figured out immediately by the seasoned Vermeil who suggested that it was time for Johnson to "take the diapers off."

LJ is just one of those players who seems to prevent his teammates from rising higher.  Despite Johnson's big numbers in 2005 and 2006, his team never made it past the first round of the playoffs.  He lugged the oblate spheroid 426 times in 2006, an NFL record, rolling up 1789 yards.  When faced with the undersized Indianapolis Colts in the first round of the 2006 playoffs, LJ was clearly run-down and mustered a meager 30 yards on 13 carries.  Johnson was single-handledly responsible for restoring the confidence of that Colts defense, which had been regularly maligned for being among the worst teams against the run in the 2006 regular season.   The Colts went on to win the Super Bowl.

Except for a few games in 2007, Johnson has never been an effective rushing threat again.  In one of the worst re-signings in recent memory, Kansas City management chose to make LJ the highest paid running back in the NFL.  What they have gotten in return is an easily injured player with a proclivity for off-the -field stupidity combined with that brooding, me-first attitude Dick Vermeil got to know and failed to love.  LJ was arrested four times since 2003.

His gay-bashing tweets to fans responding to his own tweeted criticism of the Chief's coaching staff finally got him suspended, fined and finally put on waivers.   The tweets were more remarkable for their ignorance and inability to construct a simple sentence than they were for their criticism.  After all, Johnson actually graduated with a degree in Interactive Arts from Penn State.  I was unable to find the curiculum for this obviously less-than-intensive course of study, but you can bet that there weren't any English courses required.  Here's a sample of LJ's tweeted brainstorms:

"My father got more creditentials (sic) than most of these pro coaches."

"My father played for the coach from rememeber the titans...My father played for the redskins briefley (sic).  Our coach Nuthn."

Punctuating this erudtion with name-calling directed at the sexual orientation of fans finally forced the Chiefs to bite the bullet and waive the troublemaking malingerer.  Johnson will leave the team just 75 yards short of the Chiefs all-time rushing record held by Priest Holmes.  Fans were said to be the driving force behind brooming Johnson before he could break the record.

While its not surprising that an overpaid, thuggish athlete with too much self-love would incinerate his career, what is truly startling is the suggestion that the Patriots are interested in giving Johnson a work-out and interview.  If the rumors regarding Belichik's interest are true, it speaks volumes about the coach's lack of faith in his less-than effective rushing corps.

While the Patriots seem to have successfully resurrected the mind-set of former trouble-magnet, Randy Moss, adding another head case is asking for cacaphony.  Guys like T.O. and Pacman Jones are bad enough on their own, but team them up with additional malcontents and the cancer develops within team chemistry in Malthusean proportions.

I had to wait a week for the bile to recede after reading Bob Kravitz's puling rebuke of legendary Indiana basketball coach, Bobby Knight in the Indianapolis Star.  Seems carpetbagger Kravitz feels it is his responsbility to ride in to Indiana on his politicially correct horse and instruct the General on the finer points of etiquette.  Denver Bob's column would have been more appropriate to the society page of the Indy Star.  Kravitz, like the vast majority of American sports columnists, wears his political correctness on his sleeve.  And what is etiquette but  a set of politcally correct rules for manners?  So it's certainly O-K, at least in his own mind, for Kravitz to serve as Miss Manners to the General.

 The college that fired Knight after building its basketball program into one of the top programs in the country is having a little soiree associated with its Hall of Fame induction ceremony on November 6.  The ultimate no-brainer has Knight being inducted into the fellowship of such hallowed legends as Debbie Oing, Charles Hornbostel, and long-time equipment manager, Red Grow.  Perhaps the Hall could have a tandem induction for Knight and his nemesis, Myles Brand, busybody former I.U. president and the man personally responsible for destroying the Indiana basketaball dynasty Bobby Knight had established in his 29 years as head coach. During Knight's tenure, the Hoosiers compiled a 353-151 record.  Coach Knight has won more games than any other coach in NCAA Division I history.  Knight's teams at IU won 11 Big Ten Championships, 3 NCAA National Championships and one NIT national championship.  Knight's programs were free of recruiting violations and nearly all of the players went on to graduate from college.

 Since Bobby Knight left, the once-proud Hoosier basketball program looks like Amy Winehouse's apartment after a week-long jag.  The long downhill post-Knight slide includes a rash of NCAA recruiting violations and suspensions and has an execrable 9-29 record since the start of the 2008 season. The Indiana University administration and the blithering nimrods in the athletic department have effectively destroyed the dynasty Bolbby Knight established with his disciplined, knowledgeable, creative and completely clean coaching and recruiting regimen. 

 But Mr. Kravits thinks Knight owes the Indiana Hall of Fame an rsvp for their invitation to make their ceremony into an event worth covering.  The other 2009 inductees include soccer coach, Jerry Yeagley, Steve Downing, Katrin Koch, Joe Norman, Mike Rabold and Alan Somers.  I'm sure these Indiana alums deserve their props, but I doubt that the national media will be out to cover this Knight-less rubber chicken testimonial.

Kravitz goes on to whine that "Everybody on the list has RSVP'ed" except for Knight.  Of course they have.  This nice little ceremony is probably a career highlight for many of these respected Hoosiers.  It's hardly a milestone for Bobby, who won an Olympic Gold Medal in addition to his many championships.  Why should the man who devoted nearly 30 years of his life to IU dignify the university with a response to their attempt to aggrandize their little Hall of Fame by adding the man they slandered and attempted to publicly humiliate before they proceeded to dismantle his creation:  arguably the finest college basketball program in the county?

Make no mistake about it:  Bobby Knight is a proud and ferociously loyal man who would have fought for the Indiana University with his last breath if they hadn't impugned him, dismantled his creation and went on to present a farcical shadow of the respected basketball program the Coach built for them.

Duke's Coach Krzyzewski suggested in an espn.com interview that the school hadn't done enough to celebrate Knight's acheivements and the great young men he had developed.  He even suggested that re-naming Asembly Hall in Knight's honor might be a good start.

Not according to PC Kravitz however.  The myopic columnist suggests that attending the Hall of Fame induction would be a "good first step" in repairing the damaged relationship between IU and the man who gave the school its finest hours in the national spotlight.  As though the university should be able to dictate the terms of any "first step" in that direction.  Kravitz asks sarcastically:

"Should there be a month-long Bob-a palooza? Should we all be required to kiss his, um, ring?

No, Mr. Kravitz.  Coach Knight, as usual, has a better idea.  Posted on the Wikipedia site for Knight is this quote from the winningest coach in NCAA history:

"When my time on Earth is gone and my activities here are past, I want they bury me upside down and my critics can kiss my ***."  (1994)

Bob Kravitz should be first in line.