Anthony Samad
Earl Woods was a black man who passed on his love of a game to his son. A game that 30 years after baseball let Jackie Robinson play -- still had courses (in the 1970s) that refused to let Blacks play. A game that still, according to many, has a quota system for Blacks and still maintains an invisible glass ceiling that has prevented “other Tigers” from getting in the game (despite the popularity of Tiger Woods, there are still no other Blacks on the PGA—and there are some that are good enough, but that’s another article). Tiger Woods may have never acknowledged what race he was, but there was no doubt of what his father was, and the game of golf saw Tiger through the prism of his paternal bloodlines. Tiger understand that and played with a Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Barry Bonds kind of boldness that said “Will you look at this—Did you see that?” kind of presence that made “the statement” without having to make a statement on the question of race. And even though he was in the shadows, when you looked at Earl Woods, you knew what it was about. It was about being where you wasn’t supposed to be, and doing what you wasn’t to do and changing the world in the process. When you saw Tiger Woods, you saw Earl Woods, his father. He will be missed.
Tiger Woods is unabashedly proud of the commitment his father made to his success. But what many don’t know is why Tiger is as successful as he is. Yes, you can point to the work ethic, the concentration, and the desire to win, instilled by his father. But Earl understood “the politics of golf,” as a pressure game. Positioning is everything. Where you finish one week dictates where you play the next. Your finish in one tournament dictates if you “are invited” the next year. The best kept secret of Earl and Tiger Woods? Earl Woods never wanted Tiger to have to play for money. Before Tiger ever hit a single golf ball, as a pro, Earl went out and signed Tiger to $100 million dollars in endorsement deals with Nike, Titlist, Buick and Rolex. It had never been done before. He then said, “Now, my son can play golf for the love of the game.” And when you see Tiger Woods, he plays like he doesn’t have a care in the world—because he doesn’t. He wins because he wants to be great, not because he wants to be paid. And he never forgot how he got there, by being, as Earl wanted, "a good person."
His first commercial for Nike, the famous “I AM Tiger Woods” commercial where says stated there were courses that didn’t let him play because of the color of his skin was an ode’ to his father. That was Tiger saying “This one’s for you, Dad.” Tiger still doesn’t play courses that discriminated against him when he was an amateur. He does that in recognition of his father’s fight “back in the day.” And every time we see Tiger, we’ll see the love of Earl Woods.
- Anthony Asadullah Samad is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum and author of 50 Years After Brown: The State of Black Equality In America (Kabili Press, 2005). He can be reached at www.AnthonySamad.com
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