Grist for the rumour mill
Sorry to disappoint those who love spreading and/or hearing bad news, but this is from the “here’s another rumour that needs debunking” department:
Usually, we don’t chase down every shred of gossip we hear out there or else we’d be doing it 24 hours a day, but sometimes we must. And so, contrary to what you might have heard at the coffee shop or the local rink, the Weeks family is not pulling their sponsorship from the Junior A Crushers.
In fact, we got that from the Weeks family. Weeks — they of the construction company — have been sponsoring the Major Midgets program since its inception, and the Junior A Crushers since 2004.
Perhaps this is busting yet another myth, but they don’t pay all the bills, either, and while I don’t know the dollar amount Weeks gives to the programs every year (they didn’t say, I don’t care and it’s hardly anyone’s business), they stressed the importance of the decades-long connection the family has with local hockey – it’s part of Scott Weeks’ “legacy,” as one family member noted – and it’s not something they’d want to see fall by the wayside.
So, there you go. Another noncrisis has been averted. Like him or not (mixed feelings here), but golf is a lot more interesting when Tiger Woods is playing well and competing to win tournaments. He boosts interest in the sport, causes television ratings to explode, and while he didn’t win last Sunday, he was right there at the end.
The trouble with Tiger and attracting all those fans is, well, some of the fans. On Saturday, Canadian golfer Corey Connors was leading the tournament, putted out on one of the holes and a few presumably over-served Americans started the always-obnoxious “U-S-A-! U-S-A!” chants.
It wasn’t many of them, but enough to be noticed (which is of course what they want: attention, since mommy and daddy didn’t give them enough when they were children).
Tiger Woods might be back, the guy who usually makes 30foot putts when he absolutely has to make them, the guy who wins major titles.
Golf observers say Tiger’s aura of invincibility has been lost, and that other players are no longer intimidated by him.
Let’s see what happens at Augusta next month, if he’s anywhere near the lead at the Masters. We’ve seen him be scary there before. When basketball star LeBron James says “I’m like fine wine,” as he did this week, he’s not trying very hard to be humble. Most great athletes remain silent and let others say how terrific they are, and yet some of them like to remind us of their greatness, in case no one has mentioned it in the past 10 minutes. Non-sports rhought
of the week
• They do the heart good, all those students in the U.S. who walked out of school this week, or marched in the streets demanding something be done about guns in the United States of America. Even with the pathetic threats from some school administrators in an attempt to keep students from walking out, I hope the kids continue to keep up the pressure.
The gutless U.S. politicians who are at the mercy of the National Rifle Association and its generous campaign contributions are going to try to wait out the students until the thing blows over, so the marches must get bigger, louder.