In this day and age, race is not the issue in sports it once was when athletes like Jackie Robinson were trying to break through color barriers in America. These days issues with race for the most part tend to flair up when a sports commentator makes a guffaw on a live telecast. Such seems to the case with the recent comments made by Kelly Tilghman of the Golf Channel.
As others before her have done, Tilghman attempts at humor came off the wrong way when she said that those young PGA players, who will be competing with Tiger Woods this year, should go “lynch Woods in a back alley.” Tilghman was quick to issue an apologies to Woods for her comments, though It remains to be seen whether the incident will blow over, or turn into the type of controversy that has cost sports commentators such as Howard Cosell, “Jimmy the Greek” Snyder, and Rush Limbaugh their jobs over the past few decades.
Though he does not fully consider himself an African-American due to his highly mixed heritage, this is not the first time that Tiger Woods has found himself in the midst of racial controversy stemming from comments made on a golf course. Back at the 1997 Masters, Woods, found himself in the middle of another attempt at humor gone wrong, when fellow golfer Fuzzy Zoeller referred to him as “that little boy” and asked him not to serve fried chicken and collard greens at the next Masters dinner, a dinner that would be hosted by the defending champion, which was to be Woods. Perhaps because of their relationship on the golf course as players, Woods was quick to accept Zoeller’s apology for the comment and the incident blew over.
Unlike Zoeller, Kelly Tilghman sits on the media side of golfing events, and may face a harder struggle to extract herself from the controversy she may find herself in. Already under some scrutiny as a female play-by-play announcer for the Golf Channel, Tilghman might be faced with the type of public outcry that recently cost Talk Radio host Don Imus his job with MSNBC. In April of 2007, in what became an ill advised attempt at being funny, Imus made derogatory comments about the Rutger’s women basketball team. Comment which Imus was never able to recover from, and he was let go by MSNBC.
Even the Iconic Howard Cosell, one of the models for the modern day sportscaster, was never able to fully recover from some on air comments he made during his tenure on Monday Night Football. Despite a reputation that seemed far from racist, Cosell’s on air comments of Washington Redskin’s receiver Alvin Garrett were not well received by the general public, partly prompting Cosell to close out his career as an announcer for the TV show.
What will become of Tilghman remains to be seen. Perhaps in a show that we have grown past the point of overreacting to this type of public guffaw, nothing will become of the incident. Maybe then, we can truly move beyond racism in sports.
Source: “Fuzzy Zoeller brings certain issues to the table,” www. Tigerstale.com
“Blunders in the Booth,” www.sportsillustrated.cnn.com
