re: Tiger Woods Documentary on HBO Max: Jan/2021

Yeah, I felt the same in regards to Steve. Surprised to hear they don't chat even idly.

They must occasionally cross paths.

But I've been divorced, and there are people I lost contact with and do not seek out to communicate.

I would guess that it was just a matter of putting the old Tiger in the past, and Steve just served as too much of a reminder.

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Why did I have to watch 30 minutes about him breaking up with his high school sweetheart Once they got in a long distance relationship in college? Is there is something wrong with that?

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Because it was obvious that he didn’t do it. Earl did it. It showed the overbearing nature of his parents.

I think they could have easily done another 2-4 episodes.

I thought it was good, not even close to the last dance, but good.

Obviously Tiger didn’t participate and a lot of the footage you saw from the comeback was from another doc. So you basically only got the views of the estranged people.

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The only part I didn't like was fricking Bryant Gumbel. We've established he's a person of color, we got it, and they had moved past it and were really getting into Tiger the person and what really was going on with these girls, then up pops Bryant Gumbel again with his "bringing the black man down" shite. Obviously this esteemed member of the prestigious media has decided Tiger is simply black and the rest of his heritage doesn't matter

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A really surprising thing about Gumbel being the person who said that is how much heat he has personally taken for not seeming black enough.

He has half a point in that older generations did define mixed race black people as black but Tiger is decades younger (a product of a more mixed culture) and was raised by an Asian woman as well as a black man. For all his very considerable flaws, Earl Woods also fantasized about Tiger bridging more of the racial divide. Some of that clearly influenced Tiger's thoughts on race and heritage.

It's complicated. Tiger really did deal with the bigots at country clubs calling him n----r. But he was also a bigger story about American success that made him more interesting and wealthier than he would have been if he were white. Gumbel's comments were accurate as far as they went but he missed the other half.

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Not all the way through part 2 but it reaffirms that paparazzi are some of the lowest forms of life on The planet.

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100% agree but let's not look over the fact that the tens of millions of people across the globe that lap their pictures up aren't just as culpable. If a pap got a picture of Aaron Rodgers kissing some guy in a gay bar it would be a 50+ page thread on tMSB.

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9Fiddy

My biggest takeaway is this country’s absolute addiction to schadenfreude.

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I am pretty sure that crabs in a bucket is pretty much universal and not remotely an American thing nor do I think we do it better than anyone else. I don't remember the exact verse but there is a Proverb that discusses it though not with near the perfection as the German compound word.

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Def. makes sense but still unfortunate they can't let bygones be bygones

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Pretty sure Steve took some pot shots on Tiger after Tiger fired him. One specifically I remember is that after Adam Scott won the Masters with Stevie on the bag, Stevie says, “ I've caddied for 33 years — 145 wins now — and that's the best win I've ever had.” He walked it back the day after, but I imagine Tiger holds a grudge like a turtle

Finished it up last night. I liked the doc, but it didn't go into much detail as some have mentioned. I also would have liked to see/hear more about the intricacies of some of the tournaments as well. The story about Tiger shite talking Phil about the three wood drive was great and I would've liked to have seen more of that kind of stuff too.

Agree that Gumbel was the worst part of it. Man, that was super annoying how they kept going back to him and he only had one thing to say (over and over).

What stood out to me was that some of these women in Tiger's life clearly thought they were more than they actually were. Every one of them was like "I thought he loved me." Well of course you did...that's what players do; they lie to get in your pants. You were just the next hoe he wanted to bang in a long line of hoes.

That doc made me feel even more bad for Elin than I did before. And the kids too. The paparazzi going in hard on her when she's just trying to get her kids out of the car was pretty sad.

I don't know if I buy into the whole "he learned philandering from his dad and his older white friend" angle. Dude is one of the most popular and famous people on the planet, and is worth endless amounts of money. Of course women are gonna throw themselves at him. It's only a matter of time before someone like him gives into that lifestyle. I imagine most pro athletes are the same way, and that was even referenced in the doc about when he was in Vegas with Barkley and Jordan. All those women were throwing themselves at them, and they even had people at the club working for them to "make sure they have a good time" who would walk around and ask hot chicks if they wanted to hang with famous athletes. So the older white dude who tried to feign guilt over "showing" Tiger how to mess around came off as really insincere IMO.

Also, I'll echo the way too much of the first girlfriend thing. A lot of people don't stay with their childhood or early-college significant others. So I don't know why this chick was such a big deal in this doc. And clearly that letter either came straight from Earl, or from Tiger at Earl's direction. And honestly, I'd assume that Earl did it because he knew that Tiger had something and was on his way and didn't want someone (anybody) holding his potential career back. So while it's a shite move in the moment, Tiger should look back on it and be thankful that Earl did that. It doesn't make it less sad for that girl but still.

And the white girl friend thing was a little weird too. I get that you were kinda friends in college, but if he shut off his phone and never called you again then you likely weren't as good of friends as you thought you were. Maybe more of an acquaintance or "friend from back in college." And I assume since you are no longer a part of his life, that's why you decided that doing this documentary was a good idea.

And I had forgotten how the Masters went in on shaming Tiger. And again, contrary to Bryant fricking Gumbel, I am not sure that was because he was black. Obviously there are people that wanted to see Tiger fail, but for the most part he was pretty universally loved. Golf doesn't grow that big because people hate Tiger. It grows because Tiger brought a mountain of new fans to the sport. But the Masters board (Billy) should have never done that shite to its biggest draw, and if I were Tiger I would have taken that VERY personally and done/said something about it with them. His personal life is his own and no business of August National for the most part.

All in all, solid doc but nothing special. And I would've liked to have seen some of the more interesting aspects dug into a little deeper.

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A really surprising thing about Gumbel being the person who said that is how much heat he has personally taken for not seeming black enough.

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"White people love Wayne Brady because he makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcolm X." - Paul Mooney

In Feb 2000 I was at a National convention at the Belagio in Las Vegas and the espys were at the same time at MGM. Belagio was still the new place on the strip.. We were in the casino at about midnight and M Jordan, C Barkley and TW were in the high roller room. Only about 7 or 8 people around, at least 4 of them acted like handlers for TW. CB and MJ are playing blackjack, CB is playing 1k hands and MJ is playing 2 hands at a time each 10k. TW is standing behind them with 2 super hot blondes draped 1 on each arm. MJ was serious about playing. CB was having a ball talking to everyone. MJ and CB didn't have any women with them at that point.

It took me a while to comprehend 10k hands at a time.

Tiger definitely has a type and was super protected by his team. He was super shy and hardly looked at anyone but MJ and CB, to the point it was almost sad.

Fun fact: the adult film awards was earlier that week as well...at the Vanitian if I remember correctly. They were an interesting group, they were all over the strip in bare all outfits and the "fans" were creepy.