Speaker 1: Oh, lessons from the world's top professors anytime, any place,
Speaker 1: world history examined and science explained. This is one day
Speaker 1: university Welcome, and we're back on the untold history of
Speaker 1: sports in America. I'm your host, Mike Coscarelli. Today we
Speaker 1: examined possibly the most American thing about sports cheating. Growing
Speaker 1: up as a sports fan in this country, I was
Speaker 1: coming of age during the golden age of professional cheaters.
Speaker 1: From college booster scams to steroids in baseball to one
Speaker 1: of today's subjects, Lance Armstrong. I got to root for
Speaker 1: the best of them. What a wonderful time to be
Speaker 1: a kid. Here's Matt. A few lectures ago, I made
Speaker 1: my case for The Bad News Bear. Is this the
Speaker 1: greatest sports movie of all time? And one of the
Speaker 1: things I mentioned is that the film shows the propensity
Speaker 1: to cheat in American sports. Amanda Worlortzer strikes out the
Speaker 1: opposition by throwing the spit ball, which is most definitely
Speaker 1: against the rules in little league baseball. Well, today, I
Speaker 1: want to explore cheating very broadly defined in recent American
Speaker 1: sport history. But it's more than that. I want to
Speaker 1: consider heroism and and and hero doom in recent sport history.
Speaker 1: We turn athletes into heroes. But what happens when it
Speaker 1: turns out that our heroes are cheaters when they are
Speaker 1: not what they appear to be. We are going to
Speaker 1: focus on two athletes today, Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods
Speaker 1: to larger than life athletes who accomplished incredible things and
Speaker 1: were worshiped by millions. But these are two athletes who
Speaker 1: became mired in cheating scandals, though it's very different types
Speaker 1: of cheating. I'm not going to moralize today, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to tell you why I think we care so
Speaker 1: much about their cheating, or really, I suppose I'm trying
Speaker 1: to prompt you to ask yourself that question, why do
Speaker 1: we care or or do you care? So think about
Speaker 1: that as we go. All right, we begin with the
Speaker 1: sport of cycling and Lance Armstrong. We talked about the
Speaker 1: passion that Americans had for cycling at the end of
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century. This was the air of the great scorcher,
Speaker 1: Major Taylor and the White wheelman who challenged him. But
Speaker 1: then the automobile was invented, and so for most of
Speaker 1: the twentieth century, cycling was a very minor sport in
Speaker 1: the United States, very popular in Europe, but not in
Speaker 1: the US. This began to change in six when the
Speaker 1: American Greg Lamande he won the prestigious Tour de France,
Speaker 1: the hundred mile multi day cycling event held every summer.
Speaker 1: And in a nice coincide, Laman's name in French means
Speaker 1: the world, and I suppose he was reminding the world
Speaker 1: that Americans could be good cyclists too. And then came Lance.
Speaker 1: Lance Armstrong was a brash and cocky Texan who would
Speaker 1: do the astounding, the the incomprehensible, and Lance Armstrong has
Speaker 1: a remarkable personal story and a remarkable body. When he
Speaker 1: was sixteen years old, he was one of the nation's
Speaker 1: best junior triathletes and they did tests on Armstrong at
Speaker 1: a clinic in Dallas, and the doctors learned that Lance
Speaker 1: Armstrong had an almost superhuman ability to use oxygen efficiently,
Speaker 1: which is very important in aerobic sports like cycling. His
Speaker 1: body also did not produce normal amounts of lactic acid
Speaker 1: when he exercised strenuously, and lactic acid is what makes
Speaker 1: your muscles burn and hurt when working out. Armstrong's muscles
Speaker 1: and burn like the muscles of an average person. Lance
Speaker 1: Armstrong was built to endure. Armstrong focused on cycling, and
Speaker 1: he quickly became the top American cyclist, and he seemed
Speaker 1: poised to do what Greg Lamont had done. When the
Speaker 1: prestigious Tour de France then in. Doctors told him that
Speaker 1: he had advanced testicular cancer. Armstrong underwent surgery and had
Speaker 1: the cancerous testicle removed, but the cancer had spread into
Speaker 1: his lungs and into his brain. His oncologist told him
Speaker 1: his chance of survival was not good, but Lance Armstrong fought.
Speaker 1: He underwent three months of aggressive chemotherapy. He lost fifteen
Speaker 1: pounds from his already very lean frame, but by the
Speaker 1: next summer tests revealed that the cancer was gone, and
Speaker 1: Armstrong returned to cycling. He kept off much of the
Speaker 1: weight he had lost. He was just two percent body fat.
Speaker 1: He entered the Tour de France in n So three
Speaker 1: years after being diagnosed with cancer, and he stunned the
Speaker 1: cycling world as he surged up the mountains that the
Speaker 1: rest of the world's top riders were left behind in exhaustion.
Speaker 1: He won the Tour de France in n and he
Speaker 1: dominated the field in a way never seen before. His
Speaker 1: performance was just astounding in the wake of his victory
Speaker 1: when journalists wrote everything we knew about human athletic achievement
Speaker 1: needs to be reconsidered. And then Lance won the Tour
Speaker 1: de France the next year in two thousand and then
Speaker 1: again in two thousand and one, and then in two
Speaker 1: thousand and two, and then two thousand and three, two
Speaker 1: thousand and four, and two thousand and five at seven
Speaker 1: straight titles. And while doing all this, he started his
Speaker 1: Live Strong Foundation, which raised awareness and money for the
Speaker 1: fight against cancer. Lance Armstrong became an inspiration to American
Speaker 1: sports fan certainly, but he was a hero to anyone
Speaker 1: with cancer or anyone whose life had been touched by cancer,
Speaker 1: and more and more that just seems to be everyone.
Speaker 1: Millions of people were walking around with those yellow rubber
Speaker 1: bracelets a statement of support for cancer research and for
Speaker 1: Lance Armstrong. You know what Lance Armstrong was. He was
Speaker 1: an American folk hero, the lone Texas cowboy, riding high
Speaker 1: in the saddle, fighting for justice. He dated pop stars
Speaker 1: and went mountain biking with the President of the United States,
Speaker 1: another Texan, George W. Bush. But throughout it all there
Speaker 1: was a nagging question, how can he really be doing this,
Speaker 1: how can he be that good? And French journalists, who
Speaker 1: had a better understanding of what was possible in cycling
Speaker 1: than most Americans, they insisted that Lance Armstrong had to
Speaker 1: be doping, that is said, he must be taking illegal
Speaker 1: performance enhancing drugs. But most Americans, even hard nosed sportswriters,
Speaker 1: they dismissed the accusation. No, not Lance. We love Lance.
Speaker 1: We put our heads in the sand. It's all very
Speaker 1: similar to the way we valorized a pair of baseball
Speaker 1: players in the late nineteen nineties. So let me make
Speaker 1: a very quick detour and talk about baseball. In Mark
Speaker 1: McGuire and Sammy Sosa went on a home run hitting spree,
Speaker 1: and they went after the single season home run record
Speaker 1: sixty one set by Roger Marris in nineteen sixty one.
Speaker 1: And there was something magical about these two two players,
Speaker 1: one white, one black. One McGuire a quiet, hulking American,
Speaker 1: the other Sosa, a a joyous and powerful Dominican, were
Speaker 1: playing for story teams in the Midwest, the Cubs and
Speaker 1: the Cardinals, and they weren't just hitting home runs. They
Speaker 1: were crushing baseballs, each home run further than the last.
Speaker 1: And American sports fans ate it up. The stadiums were
Speaker 1: packed wherever these guys went, and as they got closer
Speaker 1: to the record, regular TV broadcast would be interrupted whenever
Speaker 1: one of them was coming to the plate. You know,
Speaker 1: it was we now interrupt Seinfeld because Mark McGuire is
Speaker 1: coming to bat. It was must see TV. I mean this.
Speaker 1: I don't think baseball was ever more popular than it
Speaker 1: was in the summer. Ever, part of the reason for
Speaker 1: the home run obsession was that this was the same
Speaker 1: summer as the Bill Clinton Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. During
Speaker 1: that summer, the President was coming clean and admitting to
Speaker 1: an inappropriate relationship with a twenty three year old White
Speaker 1: House intern. And so Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa hitting
Speaker 1: baseballs to the moon. It was a wonderful diversion from
Speaker 1: that sordid story. As I said, the record had been
Speaker 1: sixty one home runs in a season, but in Mark
Speaker 1: McGuire hit an astounding seventy Sammy Sosa hit sixty six. Mmm.
Speaker 1: Seems a little suspicious to me. It seemed a little
Speaker 1: suspicious at the time. Maybe they were taking steroids. Steroids
Speaker 1: are synthetic testosterone. Steroids increased body mass, and muscle power.
Speaker 1: They also increase speed and agility. People used to say
Speaker 1: that steroids don't help you hit a baseball. That's not true.
Speaker 1: They do. They make your back quicker and then when
Speaker 1: you hit the ball, the ball goes farther. There is
Speaker 1: a reason baseball players took steroids. They work, but we
Speaker 1: didn't want to question it. Head in the sand and
Speaker 1: McGuire and so said. They were everywhere that year. The
Speaker 1: cover of Time, Newsweek Sports Illustrated named them their co
Speaker 1: Sportsman of the Year, and their accomplishments were even sexualized.
Speaker 1: The shoe company Nike. They conflated sex and power hitting
Speaker 1: when they produced the definitive commercial of the steroids era.
Speaker 1: In their Chicks Dig the Long Ball commercial, two top
Speaker 1: pitchers Greg Maddox and Tom Glavin of the Atlanta Braves.
Speaker 1: They get fed up with all the admiration that Mark
Speaker 1: McGuire is receiving, especially from Heather Locklear, the actress who
Speaker 1: at the time was at the at the top of
Speaker 1: the Hollywood food chain for her work on Melrose Place,
Speaker 1: and these two pictures decide they want to get the girl,
Speaker 1: so they start lifting weights and drinking protein shakes, and
Speaker 1: they transformed themselves into power hitters. Chicks dig the long ball.
Speaker 1: They said home runs are an aphrodisiac. Americans were horny
Speaker 1: for home runs. Some people looked at the incredible, hulk
Speaker 1: like physiques of McGuire and Sosa and accused them of
Speaker 1: taking steroids, but they denied it. And it was the
Speaker 1: same with Lance. There were a few people who claimed
Speaker 1: that Armstrong had to be taking performance enhancing drugs. He
Speaker 1: was just too fast, he had too much endurance, but
Speaker 1: he denied the claims. He angrily denied the claims. He
Speaker 1: sued anyone who claimed that he was doping. Lance Armstrong
Speaker 1: financially ruined anyone who made that accusation. And but the
Speaker 1: record show Lance Armstrong took hundreds of drug tests and
Speaker 1: he passed everyone. But the suspicions and the accusations continued
Speaker 1: even after Armstrong retired from the sport, and more and
Speaker 1: more cyclists who were now also retired, They said that
Speaker 1: they saw Lance Armstrong dope, that they saw him take
Speaker 1: illegal drugs, and in fact some admitted that they had
Speaker 1: doped with him. In two thousand and twelve, the World
Speaker 1: Anti Doping Agency they formally charged Lance Armstrong with taking
Speaker 1: illegal performance enhancing drugs, and the evidence was so overwhelming
Speaker 1: that the Tour de France stripped him of his seven titles.
Speaker 1: The next year, in Lance Armstrong finally came clean, so
Speaker 1: to speak, he sat down with Oprah Winfrey. Oprah actually
Speaker 1: makes two appearances in our lecture today, and he admitted
Speaker 1: that he had been doping the entire time. He admitted
Speaker 1: to taking banned performance enhancing drugs for all seven of
Speaker 1: his tour victories. And we now know that he masterminded
Speaker 1: a drug taking regimen, and he demanded that anyone who
Speaker 1: wanted to ride on his cycling team they had the
Speaker 1: dope as well. Lance Armstrong was a liar certainly, and
Speaker 1: because he knowingly and blatantly broke the rules of his sport,
Speaker 1: he was a cheater. And my question is do you care?
Speaker 1: Do you care that Lance Armstrong cheated specifically? And do
Speaker 1: you care when athletes take illegal performance enhancing drugs? You know,
Speaker 1: baseball players like Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa or Barry
Speaker 1: Bonds and Roger Clemens, and that list goes on and
Speaker 1: on and on. You know, athletes cheat in their sports
Speaker 1: and all sorts of ways. In football, they purposely hold
Speaker 1: at the line of scrimmage. In baseball, they hollow out
Speaker 1: the center of their bat and they fill it with
Speaker 1: court or super balls, or they throw a spitball. This
Speaker 1: type of cheating is often described as amusing or ingenious,
Speaker 1: and we say, that's why there are referees and umpires.
Speaker 1: But for the most parts, sports fans seem to have
Speaker 1: drawn a line with steroids. And here's why, I think,
Speaker 1: and this takes us to the essence of our fascination
Speaker 1: with sports. For us to identify with an athlete, you know,
Speaker 1: to be thrilled by their physical performance, the athlete needs
Speaker 1: to be like us. The athlete has to be human.
Speaker 1: We want to revel in their accomplishments and say, wow,
Speaker 1: I can't do that. But that sense of awe and
Speaker 1: wonder can only exist if the athlete is made of
Speaker 1: the same materials that we are. And we have decided
Speaker 1: that steroids widen the gap between us and them too much.
Speaker 1: So when Lance Armstrong or Mark McGuire juiced themselves up
Speaker 1: to their eyeballs, we no longer understand what they are
Speaker 1: made of. That they cease being like us, and so
Speaker 1: racing up the alps or or hitting a baseball. Four
Speaker 1: D and fIF defeat. These feats are less meaningful if
Speaker 1: the athlete exists on a different biological plane. Is it
Speaker 1: supreme skill in human will? Or is it just the chemicals?
Speaker 1: We don't know, And so that seems to be a
Speaker 1: type of cheating that we do not countenance. After the break,
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods cheats a different way. Speaking of cheating, let's
Speaker 1: turn to Tiger Woods. Actually, let's first talk about the
Speaker 1: racial history of golf. I think this is an important
Speaker 1: story to understand in order to appreciate the revolutionary impact
Speaker 1: of Tiger Woods. The last time we discussed golf was
Speaker 1: when we're talking about a creation of those exclusive country
Speaker 1: clubs where wealthy Americans gathered to separate themselves from everyone else,
Speaker 1: and African Americans were barred from playing on most of
Speaker 1: these private golf courses, though they could be found on
Speaker 1: these golf courses serving as caddies at Augusta National in Georgia,
Speaker 1: the home of the Master's golf tournament as late as
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties. If you went to the Masters, all
Speaker 1: of the golfers were white and all of the caddies
Speaker 1: were black, every one of them. And do not think
Speaker 1: for a minute that this was a coincidence. This was
Speaker 1: the nation's racial hierarchy being reproduced and reinforced on the
Speaker 1: golf course. The players are white and their servants in
Speaker 1: this case called their caddies are people of color. That
Speaker 1: was all done on purpose. Racial exclusion was encoded in
Speaker 1: professional golf from its beginnings the Professional Golf Association the
Speaker 1: p g A. It was founded in nineteen sixteen, and
Speaker 1: it had a Caucasians only rule, white golfers only. The
Speaker 1: first exception to this rule came in nineteen fifty two
Speaker 1: when Joe Louis, the ex heavyweight champion. He essentially shamed
Speaker 1: the San Diego Open into granting him an exemption and
Speaker 1: letting him play. So Joe Louis is the answer to
Speaker 1: a great trivia question, who was the first black golfer
Speaker 1: to compete in the PGA tournament? It's Joe Lewis. The
Speaker 1: p g A was not officially desegregated until nineteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: making it the last of the major professional sport associations
Speaker 1: to allow black athletes to participate, and there would be
Speaker 1: some very good black golfers in the sixties and seventies.
Speaker 1: There was Charlie Sifford. He was the first black member
Speaker 1: of the p g A. There was Lee Elder, the
Speaker 1: first black golfer to play in the Masters in but
Speaker 1: through the Civil Rights era and to the post Civil
Speaker 1: Rights Sarah, golf was among the whitest of American professional sports.
Speaker 1: Then came a Southern California kid named Eldrick taunt Woods.
Speaker 1: Nicknamed Tiger after one of his dad's army buddies. Tiger
Speaker 1: Woods has essentially been in the limelights since he was born.
Speaker 1: He made his TV debut when he was two years old.
Speaker 1: He appeared on The Mike Douglas Show with his father
Speaker 1: at not to mention Bob Hope, and he was swinging
Speaker 1: the club and sinking putts, and his father boasted that
Speaker 1: his two year old son would one day be the
Speaker 1: best golfer the world has ever seen, and it was
Speaker 1: a prescient remark. Tiger Woods tore through the amateur ranks.
Speaker 1: He dominated collegiate golf while at Stanford, and then Tiger
Speaker 1: turned pro in and before he ever swung a club
Speaker 1: as a professional, he signed an unheard of forty million
Speaker 1: dollar contract with Nike, a company that was eager to
Speaker 1: find its way into the golf market. This was the
Speaker 1: Air Jordan's effect. Right, Jordan had led the way and
Speaker 1: shown how lucrative it could be for Nike to align
Speaker 1: themselves with the ascendant athlete of the moment, and Tiger
Speaker 1: Woods seemed to be that athlete. Tiger Woods is the
Speaker 1: son of Earl Woods, a man of African American and
Speaker 1: Native American ancestry, and Tita Woods, who Earlwoods met while
Speaker 1: in the U. S. Army and on a tour of
Speaker 1: duty in Thailand. She has South Asian and Dutch ancestry.
Speaker 1: And when Tiger Woods burst onto the scene in the
Speaker 1: mid ninety nineties, it was right when Americans were discussing
Speaker 1: new terms like diversity and multiracial nous, and Tiger Woods
Speaker 1: embodied these ideas, the multi ethnic, multiracial. Tiger Woods was
Speaker 1: very much a man of the multiracial moment. You know,
Speaker 1: his his multi race stillness is ethnic diversity. Who didn't
Speaker 1: Tiger represent He was the embodiment of modern America, a
Speaker 1: modern America that was becoming less white, more colorful, and
Speaker 1: more diverse. Tiger Woods was an amazing success in professional golf,
Speaker 1: and right away maybe the biggest golf tournament of the
Speaker 1: year is the Masters, played every April in Augusta and
Speaker 1: the Augusta National Golf Club, which hopes the tournament that
Speaker 1: they didn't even allow African Americans to be members until
Speaker 1: so in In his first time playing the Masters as
Speaker 1: a pro, the multi racial Tiger Woods, he won the
Speaker 1: Masters by an astounding twelve strokes, the largest margin of
Speaker 1: victory ever in that tournament. At that time, Tiger was
Speaker 1: only twenty one, still the youngest player to ever win
Speaker 1: the Masters. And this was hailed as a civil rights triumph.
Speaker 1: You know, Tiger Woods, a man of many colors, winning
Speaker 1: in what was perhaps the most exclusive and whitest of
Speaker 1: all American sporting spaces. Tiger Woods the racial trailblazer. One
Speaker 1: week after his Master's triumph, Tiger Woods was on the
Speaker 1: Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah is back on this show. Tiger
Speaker 1: Woods opened up and he talked about race and his
Speaker 1: racial identity, and he told Oprah that as a kid,
Speaker 1: he had come up with the term Cablanasian for himself,
Speaker 1: or he invented to honor his parents diverse heritage. He
Speaker 1: was Caucasian, white, who's black, Indian or Native American and Asian.
Speaker 1: He was Cablanasian. There were a few people who ridicule
Speaker 1: Tiger for this invented word. I mean some in the
Speaker 1: black community especially, They saw this multi racial stance as
Speaker 1: a betrayal of his real race. No, you're black, Tiger,
Speaker 1: they said. But I think most people saw this as
Speaker 1: a serious attempt by a young man to articulate his
Speaker 1: complex heritage, and especially growing up in a nation that
Speaker 1: forced him to check a box and pick one and
Speaker 1: only one racial identity. And so the rise of Tiger
Speaker 1: Woods in the white world of golf, much like the
Speaker 1: Air Jordan phenomenon, it was presented as evidence that America
Speaker 1: was becoming a post racial society, you know. The hero
Speaker 1: worshiping of Jordan's and now Tiger was presented as evidence
Speaker 1: that we as a nation had gotten over our racial hangups.
Speaker 1: And there are those who suggest that athletes like Tiger
Speaker 1: Woods and Michael Jordan's they made the election and presidency
Speaker 1: of Barack Obama possible. The argument here is that white
Speaker 1: Americans had to identify with a black athlete before they
Speaker 1: could vote for a black president. White Americans wearing their
Speaker 1: Air Jordan's and rooting for Tiger on Sundays, perhaps these
Speaker 1: everyday acts opened up Americans to the possibilities of a
Speaker 1: black president. That's the idea. I think it's intriguing. So
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods was like Mike in a number of ways,
Speaker 1: but especially in the way he was dominating his sport.
Speaker 1: He hit the ball further than everyone else. He possessed
Speaker 1: a determination rarely seen in that sport. Tiger was stalking
Speaker 1: Jack Nicholas and his record of major tournament wins. Jack
Speaker 1: Nicholas won eighteen majors. This refers to the four big
Speaker 1: tournaments played every year in golf, and eighteen majors. This
Speaker 1: was the benchmark in men's golf. In two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: at only thirty three years of age, Tiger had already
Speaker 1: won fourteen. It seemed inevitable that he would pass Nicholas.
Speaker 1: The question was not if he would get the record,
Speaker 1: the question was when. And then on Thanksgiving weekend two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, the entire Tiger Woods storyline changed, and
Speaker 1: it changed fast. First, we learned that Tiger Woods crashed
Speaker 1: his SUV while backing out of his driveway at a
Speaker 1: high speed early in the morning, and according to the
Speaker 1: initial reports, his Swedish wife Ellen, she heroically smashed the
Speaker 1: window of the card for the record it was with
Speaker 1: a three iron and she dragged Tiger from the wreck.
Speaker 1: But then the questions began. Had Ellen rescued Tiger or
Speaker 1: had she actually been attacking her husband with the golf club,
Speaker 1: thus causing the accident, Well, it was the latter. Almost
Speaker 1: immediately came rumors of a relationship on the rocks, followed
Speaker 1: by the stories of Tiger's alleged marital infidelities, and then
Speaker 1: the story exploded. I mean, day after day we read
Speaker 1: stories of Tiger having sex and motel rooms, sex and
Speaker 1: church parking lots, sex with coffee shop waitresses, sex with
Speaker 1: porn stars, sex and more sex and never ending sex.
Speaker 1: It was a media and public feeding frenzy, and it
Speaker 1: was a sign that a good sex scandal might actually
Speaker 1: be this nation's most popular spectator sport. From Tiger came
Speaker 1: the denial of guilt, then the admission of guilt, Then
Speaker 1: the ritualistic, tearful public apology, and then a check into
Speaker 1: a rehab clinic for for sex addiction, not drugs or alcohol.
Speaker 1: There were the jokes on late night TV. You know,
Speaker 1: question what course gives Tiger Woods the most trouble? Answer? Intercourse.
Speaker 1: Finally came the divorce, a divorce with an undisclosed settlement,
Speaker 1: but a settlement so large. I am told that the
Speaker 1: transfer of money into his wife x wife ellen Swedish
Speaker 1: bank account it actually bolstered the value of the Swedish
Speaker 1: krona against the American dollar. That doesn't seem possible to me.
Speaker 1: But if so, wow. But once again, let me ask you,
Speaker 1: Tiger is a cheater. A different kind of cheater than
Speaker 1: Lance Armstrong, but a cheater. Do you care? Here's my
Speaker 1: take all the extra marital cheating. I don't really care.
Speaker 1: I mean, sure, shame on you, Tiger, but it's none
Speaker 1: of my business. But the nation turned on Tiger Woods.
Speaker 1: Americans were outraged, and I think one of the reasons
Speaker 1: for the collective national outrage was this. For almost two centuries,
Speaker 1: Americans have equated athletic excellence with moral excellence. Championship athletes,
Speaker 1: we've been told have strong moral fiber. This is a
Speaker 1: belief that goes all the way back to that idea
Speaker 1: of muscular Christianity. You know, the idea that sports build
Speaker 1: character and moral fiber, the idea that only those with
Speaker 1: character can succeed in sports. Well, it turns out it's
Speaker 1: not true. As Tiger Woods proved. It turns out you
Speaker 1: can golf by day and cheat on your wife at
Speaker 1: night and in the afternoon and in the morning. It
Speaker 1: turns out being able to hit a golf ball close
Speaker 1: to a hole is not evidence of a strong moral compass.
Speaker 1: Neither is being able to hit a baseball over the
Speaker 1: fence or throw a football sixty yards in a tight spiral.
Speaker 1: In fact, there are those who actually suggest that Tiger's
Speaker 1: extramarital sleaziness, that it fueled his tremendous confidence and his
Speaker 1: sporting testosterone. You know. They suggest maybe womanizing made him
Speaker 1: a better golfer. Sex as steroids. I don't know. But
Speaker 1: when the really great athlete Tiger Woods turned out to
Speaker 1: be the really terrible guy, Tiger Woods, he received the
Speaker 1: collective outrage of a nation that was upset with an
Speaker 1: athlete not living up to our somewhat impossible standards. We
Speaker 1: want to believe that good guys win in sports, that
Speaker 1: there is some direct link between sports and morality, but
Speaker 1: more and more on one dering if that's true. That's
Speaker 1: all for now. Next time on the Untold History of
Speaker 1: Sports in America, presented by One Day University Sports and
Speaker 1: September eleven, School of Humans,