Schadenfreude

There's a fancy ten dollar word for you. I have no idea how to pronounce it and had to Google the spelling. But I know what it means. And unfortunately so does Tiger Woods: taking pleasure from someone else's misfortune. Now don't get me wrong: in no way do I condone infidelity. He made some very poor (and let's be honest... skanky) choices, and he'll have to face the consequences. But the three ring media circus going on this past week would lead you to believe that he was, oh, I don't know... a president of the United States who got caught doing something funny with a cigar and his intern, and then lied under oath about it.

Let's be clear. He's a professional athlete, he cheated on his wife, and he follows in the footsteps of (unfortunately) numerous other athletes, politicians, and public figures who've done exactly the same thing. Yet, we seem to be making a MUCH bigger deal over Tiger's indiscretions than anyone else's. John Edwards, a state senator and candidate for office of the Presidency of the United States, was revealed to be cheating on his wife who has cancer, and then it was subsequently determined that he is likely the father of his mistress' illegitimate child. And he got less press than this. Jeez. And I can think of numerous professional basketball players and football players who have done much worse things... at least Tiger's affair(s) were consensual.

I'm not arguing that he doesn't owe his wife some serious groveling followed by intensive counseling, but I think the media needs to lay off. If he wasn't a Stanford-educated billionaire who happens to be one of the most famous athletes in the world, people would be a whole lot less gleeful about this mess. He doesn't owe us a public apology-- the only people he owes an apology to are his wife and kids.

OK, end rant. And because I do have a sense of humor in spite of my feelings above, I'll leave you with my favorite quote out of this whole scandal:

"He ain't a Tiger... he a Cheetah!"