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  • It's time for this week's parting shots.

  • After a year of devastation, News of Tiger Woods car accident felt like another example of the relentlessness of life.

  • There were the appropriate well wishes and concerned for his well being.

  • But this also felt, as it always does, with Tiger a little different.

  • Tiger Woods is the most scrutinized athlete over the last half century in his politics, over the last four years, in his personal life and in his marriage, on the course against his peers and against history, and also in his racial identity and his responsibilities to it.

  • But beyond the details of what happened, coverage of Tiger has also felt a bit tawdry, a bit untoward, as if there's a certain glee in watching heroes fall that there's a resentment toward him for disappointing us for just being human.

  • After all, What I do know is if there's ever been a time when a person has earned the right to hell, it is Tiger Woods right now, for despite all of the sudden death and do or die cliches, Tiger Woods literally stood between life and death, and that deserves our respect.

  • I guess I've got one question for Kevin Mather, former CEO of the Mariners.

  • You know someone's always listening right matter basically blacked out his get fired bingo card when speaking on a zoom to a Rotary Club breakfast where he criticized two players, are speaking poor English and flatly admitted to manipulating the players service time by keeping him in the minors to start the 2021 season, allowing the team to retain his rights for a longer period of time.

  • It was an impressive piece of self sabotage, and he resigned one day after word of his speech hit the media.

  • It's 2021 guys.

  • Somebody's probably recording, and if they want to start, they'll start.

  • Once you start doing something, they can't believe it's happening and they ain't keeping it in their personal archives.

  • They're gonna tell everybody as soon as they can.

  • But mother got comfortable to say the quiet part out loud.

  • He's probably not the only executive who would get fired if they made their innermost thoughts public.

  • But the simple dummy test we allow even the most terrible people to pass is being smart enough to keep that stuff to themselves.

  • Kevin Mother failed that test is the dummy of the week and not even those who agree with him with stand up to defend him.

  • On Wednesday, Steelers president Art Rooney the second, released a manicured statement indicating he would like Ben Roethlisberger back in black and yellow next season.

  • But don't sleep on the caveat that followed, which said the next step is to work on Ben's contract situation.

  • That is a Heinz field sized Asterix on this relationship, like someone asking if the person you're with is your special someone and you saying For now, signs point to Pittsburgh being lukewarm on Big Ben.

  • Besides him having the most expensive cap it in the NFL and there being a lot of quarterbacks out there, consider this.

  • It took nearly two months for the Rooney Roethlisberger meeting to even happen.

  • That is not an endorsement.

  • That's an endorsed Mitt.

  • Ben, who turns 39 on Tuesday, has never been what you'd call Mobile.

  • But is he flexible because saying you don't care about your pay is one thing.

  • Agreeing to what is actually proposed is quite another.

  • And if the two sides can't find a mutually beneficial way to avoid that crushing cap hit the Steelers are better off investing in the next guy.

  • Now the NFL is still a quarterback driven league, and old guys have shown us very recently they can still lead their team to the Lombardi.

  • I don't think the Steelers can repeat that history with Big Ben, but he's there.

  • Special someone for now.

  • February 2nd, 1949.

  • Ben Hogan was driving home to Fort Worth with his wife, Valerie, from the Phoenix Open in dense fog.

  • When it became clear that a Greyhound bus was going to slam into their Cadillac head on on a narrow bridge, Ben threw himself across the front seat to shield Valerie from the impact.

  • In the process, he probably saved both their lives.

  • If he'd stayed upright, he would have been impaled by the steering column.

  • Still, his body was shattered.

  • Broken bones, bruised organs.

  • Valerie was mostly unscathed, but Ben would spend 59 days in a local hospital.

  • He was 36 years old and the best golfer in the world.

  • The year before, he'd won both the PGA Championship and the U.

  • S Open.

  • It would take nearly a year for Hogan to return to competition.

  • It still seems impossible, but after the crash, he would win six more majors.

  • At this point, we simply don't know what the future holds for Tiger Woods.

  • Whether he can make a full recovery.

  • He's nearly a decade older than Hogan was at the time of his crash.

  • Right now, the focus must be on simply walking again.

  • But at some point knowing that Tiger Woods has always judged himself against the all time greats.

  • Let us all hope that Tiger can eventually get to a place where he can start thinking.

  • If Hogan could do it, so can I.

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It's time for this week's parting shots.

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