November brings an end to all of the candy and the annoying political campaigns, an extra hour of sleep, and the never-ending Christmas songs we’ll hear until our New Year’s parties begin. November also brought the end of Tiger Woods’ reign as the number one ranked golfer in the world, a rank he held for 281 straight weeks and for 623 weeks cumulatively throughout his career.
Since his car accident in November 2009, Tiger Woods has lost his number one spot in the World Golf Rankings and has yet to win a tournament.
It took a little less than a year, but the climax to Tiger Woods’ career has been reached. He’s descending back down to Earth. The immortal being is showing his flaws. While we were sleeping from all the turkey last year, Tiger Woods was running — well, driving really — away from a golf club aimed for his head. He’s gone downhill ever since. He has the money to allow him to live comfortably for the rest of his life, but he’s no longer living cloud nine.
Mike Tyson was always a vibrant character who ruined his stardom and run at overtaking Muhammad Ali as the greatest boxer of all time when he was charged with raping then 18 year-old Desiree Washington. Biting Evander Holyfield’s ear put him back in the spotlight, but his desire to be as high as his voice ruined his professional career and forced him to declare bankruptcy in 2003. Millions of dollars and boxing fame have been lost for an icon once on top of the world.
Steroids have shrunk Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Shawn Merriman, Marion Jones and many others’ professional integrity. No one believes a word Roger Clemens says anymore, and Jose Canseco looks like a hero. Homeruns in baseball have declined; done are the years in which multiple players hit 50 home runs. Lance Armstrong did the smart thing and quit cycling early. His teammate, Floyd Landis, wasn’t as smart and had his Tour De France title stripped away from him testing positive for a drug that produces an excess amount of testosterone. Each player listed above was a top-notch athlete in their respective sport. Since problems with steroids have risen, they’ve fallen from grace. Jones lost her Olympic medals. Merriman is now a joke rather than a threat and Bonds is self-explanatory.
Other illegal drugs have caused the downfall of some of our best athletes. Dwight Gooden was bound to be one of the greatest pitchers of his era. In just his second year in the major leagues he posted a 24-4 record with a 1.53 earned-run-average. Numbers like that are unheard of nowadays. Ricky Williams went from being a Heisman Trophy winner in 1998 to a drug bust in 2004 and again in 2006; now he’s the second running back for the Miami Dolphins and making nowhere near as much money as he would have originally made. Let’s see if Michael Phelps has a drop off after his 2009 marijuana run-in; since then he has lost his endorsement deal with Kellogg’s, but won five gold medals at the 2010 Pan Pacific Championships.
There are countless fall-from-grace stories in each sport from countless different athletes. We never hear about the guy who invested his money into the stock market, or a woman who donated her winnings to breast cancer research. Instead they decide to blow it on steroids, drugs and underage prostitutes. So far it doesn’t seem to be working for any of them. Just ask Tiger Woods, he thought he could get away with having a woman in each state, now he has no one.
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