First it was Brock Lesnar’s meltodown after his UFC100 fight with Frank Mir.  Then it was Lebron James storming off the court after his Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Orlando Magic.  And now Tiger Woods is the lastest celebrity athlete to be admonished by sportswriters for his poor etiquette when he is losing, this time by Rick Reilly.

From Rick Reilly at ESPN:

Tiger Woods has outgrown those Urkel glasses he had as a kid. Outgrown the crazy hair. Outgrown a body that was mostly neck.

When will he outgrow his temper?

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He’d hit a bad shot, turn and bury his club into the ground in a fit. It was two days of Tiger Tantrums — slamming his club, throwing his club and cursing his club. In front of a worldwide audience.

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Put it this way: Will Tiger let his own two kids carry on in public like that?

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If my kids grew up to be the absolute best in the world at their profession, while simultaneously maintaining a high level of class with media and fans and building a comprehensive body of charity work that included a recent AT&T golf tournament for the troops, I’d actually let my kids carry on in public however the fuck they wanted.

I remember Tiger’s dad, Earl, telling a story. One day, when Tiger was just a kid, he was throwing his clubs around in a fuming fit when his dad said something like “Tiger, golf is supposed to be fun.” And Tiger said, “Daddy, I want to win. That’s how I have fun.”

Well, it’s not fun to watch.

Are you kidding me?  It’s not fun to watch people who want to win so bad it alters their psyche in clutch moments?  That transition from golfer to “killer” or Michael Jordan the basketball player to Michael Jordan the “assassin (in my best Marv Albert voice)” isn’t fun to watch?

To be fair Rick Reilly is not the first sportswriter to throw a fit over other people’s throwing a fit.  He was the tipping point that drew my most concentrated ire.  But it is articles like these that are great examples of why people are reading Bill Simmons instead of Reilly.  When I think of Rick Reilly anymore, I think of him as a sports fan the same way rap fans think of Bill Cosby.  He’s that old guy who keeps complaining about how things used to be, and how they should be, and how there’s just not enough manners and pudding pops going around.

People, just like everything else in the world, are a miasma of trade-offs internally.  The CEO of a Fortune 500 company may not be getting as much time with the family as people think they should.  People with a talent for critiquing things on their obscure website may also be functional alcoholics.  And people with an unusual passion for winning will at times have a hard time battling their heat-of-the-moment temper.  It comes down to realizing these things about yourself and finding the best balance you can.  And when it comes to Tiger Woods’ balance, I think it’s just fine where it is.