Jim Nantz Criticizes Tiger Woods’ Vocal Tantrums
Shane Bacon, Yahoo! Sports, April 13, 2010
Before the Masters started, Tiger Woods told us that he had changed. His outbursts would be quieted, his club tossing would be softened and he was going to be a different guy on the golf course.
No matter if you bought that or not, it’s true that the weekend brought out some of the old Tiger. He screamed “Tiger, you suck!,” only to follow that up with a profanity unlike any other in the third round. On Sunday on the 13th hole, Woods screamed “Jesus Christ!” after a tee shot and he wasn’t complimenting the man upstairs.
It wasn’t something new with Tiger, but it is something he told us would be avoiding in the future. Jim Nantz, the voice of CBS at the Masters, had a chance to talk with Mike Francesa of WFAN on Monday, and let it be known that he wasn’t happy with the way Woods acted.
“If I said what he said on the air, I would be fired. I read in the USA Today and it was called “mild language.” Someone on my broadcast dismissed it as him having a camera in his face. Well, guess what? Phil Mickelson had a camera in his face all week and did you even hear him come close to approaching that? He didn’t hit every shot the way he wanted. Have you ever heard Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus use that kind of language? What are the parameters between what’s right or wrong?”
Nantz then admitted that this isn’t something that has disturbed him in the past, but the fact that Tiger promised us a change is why it rubbed him the wrong way. {snip}
{snip}
{snip} If you’re going to cuss when the cameras are rolling over a live broadcast, that is one thing, but when you tell us you won’t and still do it, it sure makes you look bad. Especially for a guy trying to bulldoze his past image.
[The audio of Jim Nantz’s comments can be heard here.]
