Give it a rest.

I'm tired of political correctness. I'm tired of the sensitivity police. I'm tired of headline seekers. And I'm tired of minor mistakes being turned into major offenses. I also realize that these are the signs of our times and opinions to the contrary of the common(?) wisdom are often attacked. So understand that it is with at least a bit of timidness that I offer the following:

I was watching the Golf Channel when Kelly Tilghman let go with the "lynch" comment. I winced. I thought, "What was she thinking? Well there goes her career." I know the comment was offered as hyperbole. I know that Tilghman didn't intend for anyone to take the comment literally. It was intended to be a joke. A bad one to be sure, but a joke just the same. And I knew what was coming.

Anyone short of the biggest idiot appreciates all that Tiger has done. He, like other great sports figures (think Michael, Favre, Wilt, Theismann, Kareem, Ripken, Lebron) transcends racial lines. Everybody wears their jerseys. Nobody cares what color their skin is. They belong to all of us.

So does anyone really think that Tilghman meant any harm? Hell, in truth, Tiger probably pays a good bit of her salary simply by being as good as he is. Think she doesn't know that?

Here's another take. She's Tigers friend. Maybe not "Come on down and spend the weekend with the family" friends, but close enough that they talk. Tiger doesn't care. He didn't have to move on, he wasn't stuck in the first place. It's the aforementioned sensitivity police that are making the most noise.

By the way, the magazine cover with the noose... dumb, really dumb. You deserve what you get for the sheer stupidity of that decision.

Tilghman made a bad decision. Suspend her...OK. Fire her...too harsh. So let's all be grown up boys and girls. Let's stop looking for reasons to get pissed off. Let's start realizing that all of us sometimes make mistakes. This is sports for Pete's sake. And it 2008. I can't think of another area where race simply doesn't matter. As a former athlete, I don't remember ever judging someone on their ethnicity. I knew who was good and why they were good, how fast they were, how high they could jump, what number they wore and what I needed to do to be better against them. And I don't remember being judged based on my skin color other than the fact that white men can't jump.

Oh wait...was that racist?