The Debriefing: If Tiger Woods Doesn't Care, Why Should I?

The Debriefing is a column that runs every weekday at 9:00 a.m. here on FanHouse. It goes deep into one issue and then bounces around to a plethora of smaller ones ... and does it all in a way that will make you feel like the prettiest girl at the cotillion. Bookmark this page, and visit daily.



So, are you psyched about next week's FedEx Cup? Yeah, me neither. Are you confused about it? Yeah, so is everyone else, including those who will be participating in it. Do you have no idea what the FedEx Cup even is? Yeah, don't sweat it.

If you ask the PGA Tour people to explain the FedEx Cup, they'll tell you it's a year-long system of accumulating points that eventually culminates in an exciting 4-tournament playoff, the winner of which earns $10 million, the prestigious-because-the-PGA-said-so FedEx Cup, and the respect of his peers and golf fans everywhere.

If you ask me to explain the FedEx Cup, I'll tell you that it's a contrived, artificial NASCAR rip-off that is unnecessary, meaningless (at least for the time being), and, depending on who plays and who doesn't, potentially excruciatingly boring.

And if you ask Tiger Woods to explain the FedEx Cup -- and his opinion is the most important of all -- he might tell you that's it's something he'll do if he's bored on August 23rd.

(Also at the bottom: ... Keith Bulluck knows how to carry a grudge ... Pacman finds something new and constructive to do with the recess that Roger Goodell granted him ... David Beckham plays, and does so quite well ... and Antwan Barnes belongs in handcuffs ... )

Here's how it works (and I'll try to explain this as quickly as possible, because it's goofy and mind-numbing): All year long, players are accumulating FedEx Cup points based on their performance in PGA Tour events.

As it currently stands, Tiger Woods leads everyone with 30,574 points. Only 9 players are within 20,000 points of him, and no one is within 10,000 points of him (Tiger's also racked up these points in just 13 events, while the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place players have played in 23, 19, 18 and 21 events ... Tiger's pretty good).

Anyway, after this week's Wyndham Championship, those points won't really matter. The Top 144 point-getters advance into the FedEx Cup, but the points reset. Tiger Woods has 100,000, #2 has 99,000, etc. They reset the points like this because, if they didn't, Tiger Woods would probably win the next 10 FedEx Cups without ever having to play in one of the four FedEx Cup tournaments.

The playoffs (I really feel like I should be putting "playoffs" in quotes, but I'm not going to) themselves are a series of four tournaments, the Barclays, the Deutsche Bank (teehee) Championship, the BMW Championship, and then the Tour Championship.

They'll play the Barclays like a normal tournament, and points will be awarded based on how players finish, and added onto the points that a player brought into the FedEx Cup (Tiger Woods starting with 100,000, etc). After the Barclays, the field is cut to the top 120 point leaders, and those 120 will play in the Deutsche Bank and earn points. After the D-Bank tournament, the field is cut to the top 70 point-earners for the BMW Championship, and then down to 30 for the Tour Championship.

And after the Tour Championship, the guy with the most points wins. It is entirely possible, perhaps even likely, that the winner of the Tour Championship will not be the winner of the FedEx Cup, which pretty much defines "anticlimactic."

In fact, I'll go ahead and say this: any sporting event that takes that long to explain does not sound like much fun.

To make things even weirder, they're not even going to pay the winner. At least, not immediately ... $10 million is the winner's share, but they can't have it until they're 45 years old and can cash in their PGA Tour retirement annuity.

By the time this year's winner of the 2007 FedEx Cup gets paid, the FedEx Cup might have been dead and forgotten for years, and the winner would one day, out of the blue, get $10 million and not remember where it came from.

And none of these things are even the big reason that the FedEx Cup might totally bomb. That big reason would be that Tiger Woods is considering not playing in the first tournament of the playoffs.

He may want to take the week off, and hang out with is wife and kid, and that's more than understandable. He's not obligated to care about an event because the PGA Tour wants him to.

But the fact is that if it's happening in golf, and Tiger Woods doesn't care about it ... then it just doesn't matter. Those are the rules.

Phil Mickelson might not play, either, and while he's still the second-biggest draw on the PGA Tour, the way he's been playing lately, there was a decent chance he'd be cut after the Deutsche Bank Championship, the tournament that was nearly named after him.

Neither Tiger or Phil have firmly committed to playing the first tournament of the playoffs, the Barclays. And while Tiger Woods skipping one of the four might not be disastrous to the event itself (I wouldn't bet against Tiger winning the FedEx Cup while playing just three of the four events), the symbolism of the game's two most popular players taking a pass on the event would be huge.

Tiger is bigger than golf. You could sell more tickets to Tiger playing a round of mini-golf at Kenny's Roller Ranch in Burlington, Iowa than you could for an entire PGA Tour event involving everyone except Tiger.

He gets to decide what's important in the golf world. The other golfers might not like it, the PGA Tour might not like it, but that's the reality.

Because if you win an event and Tiger Woods wasn't in it, you really didn't prove much. It's like winning a hot-dog eating contest when Kobayashi and Joey Chestnutt aren't around.

And if Tiger elects to sit out the first 25% of the FedEx Cup, that's a pretty big ... I don't know, what's the opposite of 'endorsement'? If the man who is hellbent on dominating golf is content to leave this one for someone else, doesn't that shatter the event's credibility? It might as well be one of those events that's clearly on a second-tier ... like the Triple A World Series, the American Hockey League, NASCAR's Busch Series, or the NFC Championship Game.

Tiger Woods is all about the major championships. Golf is all about the major championships. It doesn't matter how much the PGA invests in the FedEx Cup, it doesn't matter how heavily they promote it, and it doesn't matter how much importance they place on it.

As long as Tiger's main goal is to win green jackets, U.S. Opens, Claret Jugs, and Wanamaker Trophies (and it has been since he was born, and will be until he's done shattering Jack Nicklaus' record for major wins), then those will remain the only truly coveted prizes in golf.





Man City? Yeah, that looks like a man city to me. The new transfers appear to really enjoy one another's company. They beat Derby last night to move to 2-0.






Keith Bulluck. Keith Bulluck wants to destroy a couple of New England Patriots for things they did in a game last year against the Titans that he felt were unsportsmanlike. Reche Caldwell, in particular, raised his ire.

"Just the way they were acting after the game kind of irked me. A couple of the guys on the team weren't being too professional,'' Bulluck said. "It is only a preseason game, but No. 87 (Caldwell) needs to keep his head on a swivel, that's all I've got to say.''

"He is probably the sixth receiver, so I don't even know if he'll be in when I'm in,'' Bulluck said of Caldwell. "There are no personal vendettas or anything like that, there is just one person in particular that sticks out in mind. If he is (in the game) I'll know. Trust me.''

Oh, and he wants to destroy Vinny Testaverde, too.

"I hope his old (butt) is out there, too,'' Bulluck said of Testaverde.

Seems unlikely, since Vinny isn't currently on the Patriots roster, but maybe Bulluck will see him in the parking lot or something.

I can't speak to the morality of Bulluck's bloodlust, but I will say this ... anyone who's threatening to injure a man as old as Vinny Testaverde in a preseason game, because he "ran up the score" in a game the previous year ... that's a man who plays with a lot of team pride.

I'm not saying it's right if he goes head-hunting against the Patriots on Friday night ... just that if I'm a member of the Titans, I'm glad Keith Bulluck is on my side.

Probably best to keep those huge eyes peeled, Reche.



Antwan Barnes. I meant to squeeze this in yesterday, but it didn't quite make the cut ... Antawn Barnes is the guy who did this:



I know I just sort of advocated Keith Bulluck lighting up Vinny Testaverde ... but at least Bulluck has a reason. He thinks Testaverde ran the score up on the Titans, and Testaverde's a quarterback, and he makes himself a target for defenders every time he drops back.

What Antwan Barnes did, though ... that's completely different, and in no way manly or justified.

It's a punter in the preseason, in a totally defenseless position, with no intention of making a play on the football ... and Barnes, out of the blue, decides to stuff the crown of his helmet into Sav Rocca's earhole. It is the cheapest and most cowardly of hits.

It's a physical game, people can get hurt, and they all signed up for it. Fair enough. But there's a difference between injuring someone in the course of trying to do your job and make a play, and just gratuitously attempting to injure another player with no real purpose. Hitting someone in that situation might be clean and perfectly legal according to the rule book, but it's not something you do if you're any kind of a decent person.

I don't know why NFL players do this to each other. They all understand the risks of the game, every player is subject to major injury on every play ... you'd think they'd have a little more concern for each other's well-being.

Barnes is a 4th-round draft pick, trying to make a team, trying to get some attention ... but I don't think attempting to cripple a punter is something coaches will be impressed with. At least, I hope it's not.

The NFL admitted yesterday that Barnes should've been flagged for a helmet-to-helmet hit. And they're right, he should have ... but I don't think that goes far enough. I think a suspension is totally in order ... there is no place in sports for that.



Deserving Of Your Full Attention ...

8:00, ESPN. NFL Preseason. Miami Dolphins @ KC Chiefs. "Looks great, but who are the Chefs?" "Great googly moogly."

Other Stuff ...

7:00, ESPN2. Tennis. Western and Southern Financial Group Masters, Round of 16.
7:30, TBS. MLB. San Francisco Giants @ Atlanta Braves.
9:00, NBC. The Office.
9:00, Spike. Pro Wrestling. TNA iMPACT!
10:00, NBC. ER.