Cheetah Woods

Will Tiger Woods ever rebound from his mishap of last year? All the sports talk of 2009 and 2010 was always about Tiger Woods and how he had all of these alleged mistresses. He was scrutinized and his reputation as a world class, number one ranked golfer, and sports icon was tarnished after reports of all these women came out. Most people do ask the question if Tiger Woods will ever return to his dominate form and come out of this. I’m very skeptical on whether or not he will.

             I have never really been that much of a golf fan when it comes to watching the game. I do love playing the game though. The only golfer I actually know of and like is Tiger Woods and have always respected him for what he has done for the game of golf. As a minority in a sport that doesn’t get much recognition, he has done what no other African American has ever done in the game of golf. Ever since the first reports of him cheating on his wife came out, he has lost all that credibility.

            As a person who has been in a few long lasting relationships, I value honesty and staying faithful in a relationship. Any fooling around in a relationship and especially in a marriage is a horrible thing to do. If one person truly is in love with another person they would never go outside a relationship. The first time he went outside of his marriage was enough but hearing how he has slept with a number of women is just wrong. And as a celebrity he must have known that after the first reports came out, that all the other women would slowly put their stories out there. If his wife would’ve actually stayed with him she would’ve been coined as the biggest idiot of all time. She made the right decision to get rid of him.

            I can’t imagine what he is dealing with in his personal life from his family to his friends to the paparazzi always being in his face about the issue. Let alone he has to keep up his golf game and keep his elite status. Taking a break from the game of golf to sort out his life was a good decision but when he came back, everyone was asking if he was going to be the same Tiger as he always has been. So far from the tournaments he has been in and what I have seen on ESPN, his personal life is getting in the way of his golfing career. He is not the same person he was when at the top of his game.

            Today he is looked upon as a bad person and he doesn’t have too many fans anymore. When he goes to tournaments he gets booed and people yell different things to him all the time while he walks by. Everyone has probably heard of different names he is being called like “Cheetah Woods” and I’m sure there are many others. Personally I hope he rebounds and builds his life back and regains a good reputation for himself. I believe everyone should get a second chance no matter what. People make mistakes and he is only human. But when trying to answer the question if he will ever get back to where he was before, I don’t think he ever will.

Just quit Brett Favre

Football and just sports in general are a big part of my life. I follow the NFL pretty closely and I know what is going on currently with the game. The Green Bay Packers are my favorite team and Brett Favre used to be my favorite player by far. When he was with the New York Jets I still really liked him and always hoped he did well.  But ever since he migrated to the other side of the boarder, I have lost all respect for him as a person and a player. He has made a mess of his life and he just makes himself look like a fool every single year.

            For the past five or so years, Brett Favre has been contemplating retirement. He has made statements over and over again saying that he was going to leave football for good and he was calling it quits. But every year he comes back, he just makes himself look like an idiot for creating all this media attention towards himself. I feel like he is the laughing stock of the NFL. Especially when he holds media conferences and cries about leaving the game and then two months later he is back with a new team and a horrible reputation.

            The 2009 season for Brett Favre was a season of great accomplishments. He took the horrible Minnesota Vikings and made them into a pass reliable team who not only won their division but made it to the NFC Championship game. That is where I feel he should’ve ended it. When he came back for the 2010 season after a torn bicep and wear and tear to basically every limb of his body, I thought, “Wow, what a horrible decision.” And so far it has panned out to be just that.

            This season for Brett Favre and the Vikings has only been a season of disappointment. A losing record, allegations of sending lude pictures to a Jets reporter, and fingers being pointed to him for the downfall of the Vikings is what he has had to deal with so far. And just recently all hell has broken lose in Minnesota. The fans and even the players want their head coach Brad Childress to be fired. Everyone on the Vikings team is talking bad about each other and the team is falling apart. Now I ask the question to Brett Favre. Was it really worth coming back for another season?

            You can see the disappointment in Brett Favre’s eyes every Sunday. He knows that his playing abilities have dropped off significantly since the season before. He came back to the Vikings this year for one thing. He wanted to make another run at the Super Bowl. But with the chances of the team making it that far dwindling, you can see that Brett just isn’t there mentally and physically anymore.

            I wish I could talk to Brett Favre myself and look him in the eyes and say, “Brett, you’re old and washed up. You need to quit football for yourself and everyone else. You have your own health to worry about and a family that is dwindling because of your idiotic gestures towards the New York Jets reporter.” In my opinion this for sure needs to be Brett Favre’s last year as a quarterback in the NFL. Please do it for yourself and everyone who hates you and loves you alike.

Underage Drinking? Bad Idea

It was an amazing night that turned bad so quickly. One second I was having fun with my friends at the chip dumpster. The next second I was in my car throbbing in pain and horrified at what I was looking at. If I ever learned a lesson this was the worst way for it to happen. Being intoxicated as a minor leads to broken fingers, visits to the hospital, and parents wondering what in the world you were thinking.  

            After some heavy drinking at a one of my friend’s parties, we found someone sober to drive us around to listen to music. We had been driving around for about an hour and we all of a sudden had a serious case of the munchies. We all knew exactly where we would go to solve that dilemma.

            Everyone at West Salem has heard of the chip dumpster. The chip dumpster is a dumpster at the Frito Lays Company in West Salem. The company throws away barely expired chips, salsa, nacho cheese, and many other what we call treasures. Most of the time, the munchies aren’t even expired and are perfectly fresh and okay to eat.

            So we pull up to the dumpster to start our scavenging for various munchies. Usually the dumpster is full and this time there was barely anything in there. So we grab the chips that are in there and put them all in the car. There was one bag left at the bottom of the dumpster that we all had to go back to get. We all idiotically jumped on one side of dumpster to reach in and grab the bag of chips. The next thing we knew we were all laying on the ground wondering what just happened.

            The dumpster became too heavy with all of us on the one side of it and fell over. We were all asking each other if we were okay and my friends all said that they were okay. They asked me but I just walked back to the car as silent as could be. All my friends knew something was wrong. As soon as I hit the ground I knew something bad just happened to my hand. I didn’t feel any pain but my hand felt like my heart was in the center of it. All of my fingers were throbbing really badly.

            I got into my car along with the rest of my friends. They were all asking, “Matt, are you okay? Is something wrong?” My replay was, “Turn on the light!” As soon as they turned on the cargo light in my car everyone’s heads turned away because of what they were looking at. My hand was mutilated and two out of the five fingers on my left hand were crooked. There was skin hanging off of my fingers and I was bleeding everywhere.

            My friends then went to go pick the dumpster back up and we hurried out of there. I was surprised that my hand didn’t hurt more. I took a second look at my hand and I blacked out. The next thing I know we are heading back to the party to drop all of my friends off at their cars. This is when the pain finally started to hit me. Everyone was saying, “Oh my god! We didn’t know if you were going to wake up or not.” Apparently my eyes rolled in the back of my head and I was out for ten minutes. They got me to come back to consciousness by putting one of the cold nacho cheese jars against my face.

            All of my friends were freaking out because they didn’t know if they should take me to the hospital. I was contemplating whether or not to go home and tell anyone. There was no way I wasn’t going to go to the hospital. So my best friend decided to drive me to my dad’s house where I had to face the humiliation of telling the dumb story. I didn’t really feel like telling the real story right away so I started to make up a story on the way to my house. I decided to tell him that I slammed my hand in my car door before coming inside.

            So I get into the house and start walking to my dad’s room to wake him up. All I am thinking about is him telling me don’t go out and drink now. It only leads to bad things and in the end isn’t worth it. It was about 2:30 in the morning when I went in his room to wake him up and he right away started questioning me. I said I wasn’t drinking and continued with my idiotic story of how I slammed my hand in my car door. He really didn’t care about my story too much and we started to drive to the hospital in an instant.

            That drive was one of the longest and most painful drives I have ever taken in my life. I was thinking to myself, why did you drink? Why didn’t you take your dad’s advice? On top of that, every bump was a horrible jolt of pain being sent threw my hand. I couldn’t take driving any longer. I needed the pain to go away as soon as possible.

            We arrive to the hospital and head straight to the emergency room. There were about five people ahead of me and I showed them all my hand and they let me go straight to the front of the line. Immediately they got me into a room and onto a stretcher. They shot me up with pain meds and I finally got some relief. The doctor came in and I told him the made up story also. No one really believed me but I was sticking with that story. Of course the doctor also had to ask if I was drinking. That is when my dad figured out for the first time that I was drinking. I felt like I had to tell the doctor that I was drinking. I felt so embarrassed. He then had to preach to me like everyone else that drinking as a minor never is a good thing and leads to nothing good.

            They then sent me into get x-rays. After that they brought me back to my room where I fell asleep for an hour before they came back with the results. The doctor said I shattered my middle finger and would have to have surgery to repair it. The rest of my fingers were also broke. He said I was going to have early arthritis and really bad nerve damage.

            After the results came back the doctors put a huge cast on my arm to support all of my fingers and keep them straight. I was still in barely any pain and I started to reflect on what just happened. I was having such a good time and everything went downhill so quickly.

            No one ever second guesses drinking as a minor. All they think about is the “now effect” and not the consequences that could affect them later in the night.  If I wouldn’t have drank that night, my hand wouldn’t have been mutilated and I would’ve been in perfect harmony. Instead, I was in throbbing pain with an upcoming surgery to repair my finger. I also learned that the chip dumpster is stupid and dangerous. Next time I’ll probably just go to the local Kwik Trip and buy myself a bag of chips. I have never even come close to returning to the chip dumpster. Underage drinking is illegal and a dumb idea. I recommend that no one drinks if you are under the age of 21. Nothing ever comes good out of it.