Why We're Loving Tiger's Fall

If you play the sportsbook odds, what would you bet on next in the Tiger Woods Show?

Illegal firearms?

Masochism?

A secret bromance with Lance Armstrong?

Space Travel?

After a simple fender bender snowballed into possibly impaired driving; an alleged attack from his golf-club-swinging wife; 10 or so mistresses; rumors of drug abuse; Gatorade dropping his sponsorship; and a hospital visit for his mother-in-law, Tiger can't surprise us anymore.

Perhaps the only thing that has surprised me during this whole fiasco is the universality of the public's joy in Tiger's suffering.

The 50 or so per cent of the sports-fan population that always hated Tiger -- call them Team Mickelson-Zoeller -- is naturally giggling with glee. In their minds, Tiger is simply confirming what they always believed to be true about him.

"I told you he's no good!" They exclaim. "The Club-throwing and profanity were just the tip of the iceberg!"

The biggest shift in public opinion, however, comes from the Tiger lovers, a group to which I belong(ed?). Call them Team Shattered Dreams. Instead of rushing to their idol's defense, this group is revelling in each news break, nodding its collective head in approval.

The reason for it is simple: in our minds, Tiger cheated us. He pulled the wool over our eyes. Since he's always been one of history's most polarizing athletes, we spent the last decade and a half defending him adamantly, pointing to his work ethic, massive donations to charity and willingness criticize himself.

Upon learning of his now-infamous "trangressions," we feel like we defended a phony -- an image of a person that never really existed. It's not unlike what we felt toward Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa when baseball's PED scandals began trickling into public consciousness.

It's not even necessarily the details of Tiger's scandal that have necessarily hurt his legion of fans; it's the fact that he clearly pretended to be something he never was. It's thus no exaggeration to suggest, if I'm a sports betting man, that Tiger's image will never be the same.

He'll eventually redeem himself in some sense -- if Michael Vick did so, anyone can -- but will we ever trust Tiger again?