The Foundations of Karma

It was a blustery day at the Chevron World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club last weekend. The Tiger Woods Foundation hosts this event every year to raise money for his foundation. Tiger was unable to attend and was unavailable for comment. Apparently, he has been out raising money for two new organizations. The Elin Woods Foundation received a $20 million grant to continue her charitable work as supporting wife and mother of his children. The Rachel Uchitel foundation was hastily formed by the ever present Gloria Allred and an undisclosed grant by Mr. Woods. It is unclear about their mission but silence seems to be a core value. There are rumors of other similar organizations with similar agendas being formed.

It is unfortunate that Tiger’s benevolent works that he has tirelessly worked to conduct without his wife’s or the public’s scrutiny came to light on the eve of his annual event. He is a multi-tasker and we expect to see him right back on the links right after the next big celebrity scandal grabs the TMZ baton. Tiger is going to traffic school for his incident. Elin is taking golf lessons to improve on her swing mechanics.

Upon further review, the Yard ruling on the last blog has been overturned. USC had every right to throw the ball if the Bruins called time out. Our real issue was with Pete Carroll jumping up and down and running on the field like they had just accomplished brilliance. It was meaningless, controversial play with USC already leading by 14. In a down season for USC, the head coach was acting like the Trojans had won the national championship or something. His example morphed into taunting from his players which lead to an ugly confrontation at midfield before the game ended. Trojan fan, take down the banners hanging in your front yard until next fall…please.

Alas, Peter of Carroll got bit by the karma bug in the Trojan’s final home game. The Trojans let Arizona hang around all day until the Wildcats took the lead with 3:14 to go. Troy went four and out and Arizona took over on the USC fifteen yard line with under two minutes. Arizona could have punched in another score from the USC fifteen yard line but they took knees and actually gave USC the ball back with four seconds left. By losing their 4th Pac-10 this year, Troy equaled their total of the past four years. They ensured a hard earned trip to the San Diego Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl on December 23. The Bruins will be relaxing at home preparing for next year’s USC game.

This is not going to be a year that we can compartmentalize the miserable performance of the UCLA football season while basking in the success of the Bruin hoopsters. Basketball has already been really ugly. The Yard got to see the home opener OT loss to Cal State Fullerton live. Well, “live” might be a bit effusive because the Bruins were barely above flat line on that night. Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, and Jrue Holiday are all playing significant minutes in the NBA and would have been the leaders of a potential national champion at UCLA this season. They sold out the millions of dollars they are now guaranteed annually. Ben Howland gets that. You will never see Ben go Pete Carroll if one his players goes pro prematurely.

The Lakers put the rest of the NBA on notice Wednesday night. In a close game with division rival Utah, the Lake show outscored the Jazz 26-6 in the 4th quarter. In softball, the Jazz would have been given the mercy rule with five minutes to go and a plane to catch.

It was their 10th win in a row after losing two ugly games three weeks ago. When the Lakers lost to the Nuggets in Denver by 26 and limped home two days later only to lose to the undermanned Rockets by ten, the Lakers had a 7-3 record with two home losses. Questions were being asked and Ron Artest was on Jimmy Kimmel show in only his shorts answering those questions. 21 days later, the Lake Show is 15-3 and Artest is talking about the good old days in Chicago drinking Hennessey during halftime of games. It is going to a different kind of championship this year but the Lakers will repeat unless Bynum goes down…oh wait…bad karma…

19th Hole: If another media outlet wonders about the impact of Tiger Woods fornicating outside his marital contract or an athlete using performance enhancing drugs or some other superstar’s bad behavior on our children, we will collectively puke. We are raising the smartest generation of kids that this planet has ever seen. They do not care if Tiger cheated or Roger Clemens shot steroids in his and his wife’s buttocks or that Barry lied to the feds as it relates to their goals.

The Yard is putting these kids, especially my three investments that they are on notice to fix all the things we messed up. Get busy making this place better for us in our retirement. You have been given a lot and much is expected. You have never been without a computer, cell phone or the internet. You had every chance to go to college. Your clock is ticking and the heroes have left the building.

Our children do not look up the athletes, actors or celebrities as their heroes. Their heroes are their parents and never let them forget that. Tiger’s responsibility or lack thereof is not to us, it is to his family. It is private but I do hope TMZ gets the security camera tapes.

We can't all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by.” Will Rogers