A couple of life’s rules that I learned to be true while growing up:
—The only thing in life that is certain is death and taxes.
—Life moves fast even though it ticks away at the same momentum every day.
—You can fool some of the people sometime but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
—You can buy fame but you can’t buy respect. (And don’t try buying love or it results in 90 days in the slammer with a hefty fine.)
—Finally, as a sports fan, you can’t force feed me what I don’t need. Case in point: the FedEx Cup, which winds up this weekend at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
The PGA thought we, the American sports fan, needed a golf playoff, which concludes their inaugural year this weekend.
Truthfully, Commissioner Tim Finchem became sick of sinking ratings following the PGA Championship and poorly attended events that conflicted with college football on Saturday and the NFL on Sunday.
Before the golf diehards decide they want to beat me with their 9 irons, let’s go back six weeks to when a kind female reader, and fan of this column and the Tour de France, wrote to inform me: “This is a small town with small-minded people. Your attitude towards the Tour is staggering in arrogance.”
No, ma’am, it was just the facts. The same holds true with the FedEx Cup. The fact is we don’t need it. Tiger Woods doesn’t even need it. Three weeks ago, he decided to babysit during the inaugural round at The Barclays. Ernie Els took his kids “Back To School shopping” instead of driving the Duetsche Bank Championship and Phil Mickelson felt he paid his dues by winning the Bank and a day later declined an invite to the BMW Championship and took a vacation at his home in San Diego.
Enough is enough: After winning the Deutsche Bank Championship, Phil Mickelson opted out of playing in the BMW Championship so he could spend some time at home.
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In fact, Big Phil did what I did last weekend—watched football!
Imagine the Dallas Cowboys winning on wild card weekend, and then Wade Phillips announcing they were going to pass on the divisional round to spend more time with their kids.
Tiger, who raises TV ratings an average of 37 percent on the final day of a golf tournament, couldn’t even save this Labor Day event. So what if Mickelson withstood the late charge of Woods at the Duetsche Bank? The storyline took a backseat because the sports world was still in shock over Appalachian State’s upset over Michigan two days earlier.
American sports fans may not always be cultured but they’re certainly not dummies. They don’t need 33 bowls or four preseason NFL games. Generations that used to listen to 162 baseball games on the radio transformed long ago into a mainstream audience that catches the October playoffs because it’s baseball and every game is absolutely important.
Football rules the fall and owns the weekends. It is the reigning king.
I’m not knocking golf. On multiple occasions, I’ve written of my admiration for the men who play it (for the simple reason that my own golf game is so miserable). It’s a phenomenal sport that doesn’t need a playoff or to force anything down our throats.
We don’t need a final four in a sport that already gives us a fabulous four during the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship.
Wes McElroy hosts “The Final Round” on ESPN AM840. Monday- Friday 4pm-6pm.