This just in: Tiger Woods is human. That is, off the golf course.

Decide for yourself if that matters. Not for me. I will continue to enjoy watching him stalk Jack Nicklaus' majors record -- or in any tournament Tiger decides to grace with his presence. I don't care about his personal life. It's none of my business. When I see him teeing off on a par five, one shot back and two holes to play, I'll be thinking about where his drive is going, not where he's going to drive after the round.

Decide for yourself. I've read a lot of different takes on this topic this week, and many say it's the end of the an era, the end of the innocence, the last great American hero, etc., etc. Please. Why would anyone hold a sports figure as a role model? We don't know them. We never have. We know them more than ever now because of the 24-7 media, the stalking media, the ones that Tiger can't control. They weren't there for Mickey Mantle or Paul Hornung or the countless other sports heroes who hopped from bed to bed. Nobody knew. Nobody cared. The press took better care of them. That's the way it goes. But if a kid wants a role model, it should be his parents.

Will this stick with Tiger? I say no way. Sports fans don't care about steroids or drug use and there are many who don't hold gambling against Pete Rose. Infidelity is way down on the list of the sins that make sports fans cringe. Heck, many of the red-blooded American males I've talked to this week are actually proud of Tiger's ever-growing harem. They say, "You're Tiger Woods, why would you even get married?'' Infidelity is accepted more often than not in this country, and around the world for that matter. Tiger will escape from this. He'll pay the piper in terms of millions of dollars. But this will all go away eventually, if not sooner.

What boggles my mind, though, is the idea that he thought he could get away with this, that it would never come out, that these women would keep quiet forever, that the constant media eye on him wouldn't eventually find out. He seemed actually upset that this is a story. Please, Tiger. You've used celebrity like no sports figure before you, even MJ, to become beloved world-wide and all the riches that come with it. Don't scold celebrity when it cuts the other way. This is not the media's fault. And please refrain from using the word "principles.''

Finally, this whole thing reminds me of a classic line I once heard the late, great Paul Newman say. It was in a TV documentary on Newman and Robert Redford, and they asked Newman if he ever was tempted to stray on his wife, Joanne Woodward.

"No,'' Newman said. "Why would I go out for hamburger when I can go home and eat steak?''

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