Eye of the Tiger Woods

So many times, it happens too fast. You change your passion for glory. Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past. You must fight just to keep them alive! It’s the eye of the ... Tiger Woods?\nWho would have thought Survivor hit the nail right on the head by penning the life of Tiger Woods in one simple stanza?\nLet me explain.\nWoods is simply the most dominant player in his sport and is on his way to being the greatest golfer of all time. \nHe lives a dream life.\nHe only works a few months a year. He is sponsored by everyone who’s anyone. He is married to a hot nanny, former model Elin Nordegren. He plays golf for a living. He’s always in warm climates. He’s worth millions. Do I need to keep going?\nBut where Survivor really went Nostradamus on us is the line: “Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past.”\nTiger’s past was something one dreams of. He is presently trying to do something he’s already accomplished. It might be early but he is on pace to go undefeated this season – for a second time.\nWhen he was 11, he won all 36 tournaments he entered, giving him a perfect season. Eleven years old! \nWhen I was 11, Bill Clinton was getting lucky in the Oval Office, and Stephen Glass was fabricating a story for The New Republic so he could get rich off a “fictional” book of his lies later in life.\nBut as I approach the 10-year anniversary of my 11th birthday next week, I got to thinking what other famous people did when they were 11. Here’s what I got. \nNote to my gullible readers: These are not real. I made all this up. However, there is a distinct possibility that some of these might be factual by accident.\nWhen he was 11 ... \n- Ron Artest punched his first fan when an observer called him a “meanie” during a pickup game at the YMCA. \n- Danny Almonte and Yi Jianlian were actually 15 years old. \n- Mike Tyson was sent to the principal’s office for biting another student. After multiple tests, the counselors deemed his problems stemmed from being socially inept. To help, he was sent to speech therapy to try to help him pronounce his “s’s” correctly. Repeat after me Mikey: “Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore.”\n- John Wooden walked to school every day in the snow ... uphill ... both ways.\n- Bill Belichick was caught cheating on a test. It was confirmed that he knew exactly what the teacher was going to ask prior to the exam.\n- Allen Iverson was benched in the first quarter of his junior high basketball debut for skipping practice the day before. It was just for skipping practice. Not a game, but practice. \n- Freddy Adu was the future of soccer. Wait ... people actually thought that one was true.\n- O.J. Simpson ghost-wrote a book. It was titled, “If I Did It: The Confessions of a Kid Who Pulls Off The Heads of Barbies ... and Kens.”\n- And last but certainly not least, when Mike Abrams was 11 years old, he decided that if a college newspaper was ever dumb enough to let him write rants about professional athletes, he would pray that his stories ran next to the crossword puzzle so that more people would see them.