What's in a Legacy

*NOTE* I wrote this article fairly early Thursday morning, so the timing is a little dated, but Google can spy into your backyard however it cant keep a simple blog website from crashing for a couple days. Here is the article in its entirety:

*2nd NOTE* In case you don't notice it, I will usually hyperlink a video in a post, and the text will be blue. Just click on the blue text to be directed to the video.

Before I get started, I'd like thank everyone for the outpouring of support I got for this blog. I don't plan to write every day, but encouragement from people sure makes it easier to write these things, and I would like to write 2-4 posts per week as long as the news is worthy.

For this one I'd like to start with a quote from one of the greatest minds of the 1990's.

"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain

I think Kurt took this pretty serious when he saw the monetization of his music take over. He couldn't live with what he had done to his legacy by selling out his music, when really his music was the outward expression of his soul. He sold his soul and couldn't live with guilt and the legacy he was creating. Whether you like Nirvana or not, it is indisputable that they were a groundbreaking musical group and really touched the psyche of teenage angst in America at the time, hence Cobain is a great mind from the 1990’s.

Keeping in theme with things that create massive buzz in the media (ranking players of the past), debating the legacy of an athlete consumes us. The tools by which we commonly judge an athlete's legacy, statistics, are just never enough. There are too many factors that go into judging an athlete's legacy, and I think we are on the verge on cementing two transcendent athletes’ legacies.

The news broke today of Tiger Woods' withdrawal from the Tour Championship on my way to work today. Of course we all know the story by now, Tiger hasn't won since 2009, and hasn't won a major since 2008. He withdrew today due to continuing "minor" knee and Achilles injuries; injuries that are so "minor" he complains he can't walk without severe pain. In the last two years Tiger has summoned up whatever natural golf talent he had and has played respectably at a number of majors, but it is clear he is not the same Tiger Woods anymore. I thought with an offseason and a downplay of all the off-course turmoil, Tiger would come out and dominate, especially with a season opener at Torrey Pines in San Diego where he dominates. Instead he was pedestrian. He continues to "tweak" a swing that was never broken. Now he's injured.

We get far more of this now:


Unsure if we will ever see this again:


I think a big part of the problem for Mr. Woods is that over the last couple of years he has tried to restore an image following the marriage fallout. He was lambasted in the media and by present and former players for his boorish on course behavior like slamming clubs, spitting, and using profanity. It looks to me like he wanted to be loved for something he's not to help get the media off his back about his marital problems. The issue is Tiger is a stone cold killer at heart. Players wilted in his mere presence in that trademark red Nike shirt on Sunday as Tiger made another march to victory. He cussed, he spat, and he slammed clubs on his way to winning 14 majors in 12 years, and nearly 100 million dollars on the PGA Tour and we LOVED him for it. He was in the Michael Jordan category in commercialism and America ate it up. His competitive fire and out of this world talent fueled America's passion for him and the behavior we now find unacceptable, was just seen as a by-product of his domination. But instead of being hated for who is now, he is trying to be loved for who he isn’t.

I don't want to write a eulogy on the man yet. I love Tiger Woods the player. While he is 35, that still doesn’t count as old in golf. Besides, Jack Nicklaus won his last major at age 46, and six total from the age of 35 on. But I am afraid that the sports world is going to remember Tiger Woods' legacy as a player who brought the world down around himself and never fully met his potential. To think that, is downright criminal. Tiger Woods must go down as the first or second best golfer of all time, even if he never wins again. Sadly, Tiger may go down as another legend whose legacy is best remembered for what he didnt accomplish (passing Nicklaus' 18 majors), then what he did accomplish (See also Marino, Dan): GET IN THE HOLE

Moving on to a younger generation, who wanted to punch this guy in face at this exact moment?

I know I did. Look at that smug bastard. Now I know some of you are probably thinking, “Get over it.” To that I say, shut up. I know it’s too early to talk about a player’s legacy when he is three years younger than I am, but he is making an inexorable march toward immortality this postseason and it is something to think about. Only the Chicago Bulls and the Dallas Mavericks or New Orleans Thunder/Memphis Grizzlies (Can this series end already so I can watch my boys again????) stand in his way. If he wins a title, he validates everything he did in that picture, but does it create the start of the legacy he was seeking?

I loved LeBron the player until this 2010-2011 season. He was a genetic freak who has the athleticism of Dr. J only if Dr. J ate HGH and steroids for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He has amazing court vision, brutal power and the only hole in his game is his 3 point shooting, which I mean he’s still better than most 6’9” behemoths. The only reason I stopped loving him as a player is not because of the stats or the talent but because of the image he made for himself. I know, it smacks in the face of everything I just said about Tiger Woods and how his legacy should be determined, and that’s the point.

In the 24 hour social media world we live in now, legacy isn’t determined solely by what’s printed in the box scores, or what we see with our own eyes. It’s now hindered or helped by an image, an image that the athletes can carefully craft, or recklessly throw away. Two young football players, one with a Hollywood flair, the other with the blue collar workmanship representative of the city he plays for have both tarnished their images by typing 140 characters or less. Reggie Bush, a commercial dream, has done nothing but damage since the NFL draft, complaining about the draft of Mark Ingram, and then flipping off his fans by not caring the NFL is in a lockout because he doesn’t have to do OTAs. Rashard Mendenhall, who could have a promising career in a town that would worship him by the end, tweets his conspiracy theories about 9/11 and loses a sponsorship solely because he exercised his right to free speech.

In the end I’m afraid for current living legends, and those young superstars who are positioned for legendary status. The legacies they should leave behind are being obscured and tarnished by social media, commercialism, and factors that go beyond an athlete’s true job description. It is taking away from why we really watch sports, which is to watch athletes play games we love and do things within the sphere of those games that we could never do (or if you are one of my many degenerate gambling friends, we watch to make money). It’s my hope in the next half decade, the sports leagues and the athletes themselves learn how to make things like Twitter and the media work for them so that they can focus on creating a true legacy in their sport based solely on their performances.