Page 15 - Florida Sentinel 12-17-19

Sports
'Couldn't Wish For Better Year' - Woods Completes Road To Redemption
No More Mr. Nice Guy: NFL Commissioner
Roger Goodell Announces 'We've
Moved On' From Colin Kaepernick
Two years ago the future for Tiger Woods looked bleak to the point of dark- ness.
Four back surgeries, countless knee operations, marital strife and run-ins with the law meant Woods had not won a major since 2008, had no tournament victories since 2013 and had seen his world ranking plum- met to 656.
But on Sunday, US player- captain Tiger Woods capped a year that has seen one of the most memorable comebacks in sporting his- tory by driving his team to a 16-14 victory over Ernie Els' Internationals in the 13th Presidents Cup in Melbourne.
The second coming of Tiger began with a drought- ending victory at the Tour Championship 15 months ago and accelerated with a 15th major and fifth green jacket at the US Masters in Augusta.
Having returned to the world's top 10, Woods needed yet more surgery to his troublesome left knee in August before writing an- other remarkable chapter of his storied career.
In his first tournament
years out of the game and shuffled out of the February 2018 Dubai Desert Classic, his tournament return, with back spasms, causing ob- servers to question whether he could compete again at the highest level.
- 'I don't think I'll play again' -
The thought had also crossed the mind of Woods. Less than a year earlier he
had hobbled into the Cham- pions Dinner on the eve of the 2017 US Masters nursing yet another back injury, telling those assembled: "I'm done, I don't think I'll ever play golf again."
But two-and-a-half years later, Woods was unsur- passed at Royal Melbourne as he won all three of his matches and overtook Phil Mickelson for the most wins in Presidents Cup history.
"How about that? I like that stat," smiled Woods, after being told his win-loss- tie Cup record was now 27- 15-1 against his great rival Mickelson's 26-16-13.
It left Els, not for the first time in his career, having to pick up the pieces after a de- feat to Woods.
From NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s perspective, he was just trying to help.
He combed through re- sumes, took note of a former employee who never quite reached his potential, and called him in for an im- promptu job interview. Never mind that said employee had been exiled from the company for nearly three years under contentious circumstances—or that he might not even be ade- quately prepared for an inter- view on such short notice.
Goodell was tired of the whispers and the accusations of blacklists and collusion. He was tired of the boycotts and pitchforks and bad press. He was tired of vice presidents and managers and interns pester- ing him in the hallways with, “But I could really use him in my department” or “You’ve gotta make this right.”
So an olive branch was ex- tended.
But instead of gratitude, Goodell got a text message:
“Sorry,” the message sent by Colin Kaepernick’s legal team to an NFL attorney said. “We’re going to go in a differ- ent direction.”
But hindsight is a blessing,
COLIN KAEPERNICK
and that interview was proven to be nothing more than a farce. It was also later revealed that the terms of reinstatement were... well, dubious at best.
As such, a former rising star within the corporation failed to return to the fold, Goodell is officially washing his hands of the situation.
“This was [...] about creat- ing an opportunity, which Colin’s representatives came out in early October and we created that opportunity,” Goodell said at the NFL own- ers’ meetings on Wednesday. “It was a unique opportunity— an incredible opportunity and he chose not to take it. I under- stand that. And we’ve moved on here.”
And with no more Mr. Nice Guy, Colin Kaepernick is fi- nally becoming a martyr after all.
TIGER WOODS
appearance after the arthro- scopic operation, Woods equalled Sam Snead's record of 82 US PGA Tour wins when he won the inau- gural Zozo Championship in Japan.
"It's been an amazing year," a beaming Woods told Golf TV in Melbourne. "I'm speechless.
"To have won a major championship, a green jacket, to have tied Sam and to have won a cup with all these guys, I couldn't have asked for a better year."
The road to redemption began with his long-awaited win at the Tour Champi- onship, the FedEx Cup finale, at East Lake, Atlanta, in Sep- tember 2018.
Woods had endured two
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