I'm an epic movie nerd. Whenever Gladiator, Braveheart or Last of the Mohicans is on one of the movie channels, I will watch it from the point I turn it on until the end. This is not a very productive trait of mine, and it becomes especially unproductive when I stumble upon the movies at the opening credits. The three characters in those movies, Maximus, William Wallace and Hawkeye, are powerful, heroic and more aptly put, badass. In Gladiator, the hot sister tells a chained up Maximus that she "just saw a slave become more powerful than the Emperor of Rome". I bring this up because at a bar last Saturday, when Tiger Woods was playing in the U.S. Open Championship, I had one of those moments where I realized an athlete had become more powerful than anyone playing a game should ever be. At that packed bar (Maggie McGearys) in North Beach, SF, I witnessed 200 drunk people stop everything and stare at the flat screens to watch Tiger Woods Putt. And when the ball went in the hole, 200 drunk people erupted, jumping up and down, high-fiving each other as if Bruce Willis just saved the world from certain asteroid-al death. It was a goose bump moment, when you realize one individual transcends gender, race, class, religion, sobriety level, etc, and is truly super-human.

Tiger woods made $130 Million last year, and he was probably underpaid. While most of these dollars were made through endorsements, I actually think he deserves a portion of each players tournament winnings. (We'll call it the 2% Tiger Woods Tax). When Woods entered professional golf 11 years ago, the average winner took home $250,000 for first place. Now, some tournaments pay out $1.6 million for first place. That's a 640% increase in the typical purse. Factor in the fact that nobody (fans, sponsors, TV ratings) gives a shit about tournaments if Tiger doesn't show up, and you have a man who could, if he was a money-grubbing asshole, name his price, and he would probably get it. It's a monopoly to the highest degree, and there is nothing that can be done about it other than elate like a high school boy learning of his GF's negative pregnancy test when he drains a 60 foot eagle putt on the 18th hole to take the U.S. Open lead.