No Player, No Team Moves the Meter Like Tiger Woods

A friend of mine and I were talking at NewsChannel 13 on Saturday about the excitement Tiger Woods brings to the sport of golf and the casual viewers he attracts to the television when he's in contention on a weekend. The conversation arrived where you might expect: to the question of whether there has ever been another athlete to move the meter the way Tiger does.

The answer is easy and it's "no." I piled on, however, and declared no other team in the history of sports would draw viewers the way the 14-time Major champ does. If a World Series included the Indians and the Cardinals, simply replacing Cleveland with the Yankees wouldn't make ratings spike the way Tiger does while wearing red in contention on a Sunday. Swapping the Arizona Cardinals out for the Packers or Cowboys wouldn't match the hysteria stirred up by Woods in the lead on the back nine of a major.

Golf is a popular sport and its TV ratings aren't hurting perse, but they are meteoric when Tiger Woods is on the prowl and its unlike anything I've ever seen in my lifetime.