Tiger's feats can't be denied

All anyone wants to know these days about Tiger Woods is who he's sleeping with, what his iron-aided pulverized face looks like and whether or not he took performance-enhancing drugs? Yes, his life has taken a turn for the worse.

But the world's greatest golfer, who is taking an 'indefinite leave' from the game while he deals with his personal life and marriage, was recently named the Athlete of the Decade by the Associated Press. The ballots went out right around the time of his car accident, and despite his "transgressions," Tiger received 56 of the 142 votes from Associated Press editors. More than half the ballots were returned after the Nov. 27 crash.

Scandal be damned. It just goes to show that perhaps Phil Knight, the czar at Nike, was right when he said "When his career is over, you'll look back on those indiscretions as a minor blip." Woods was - and when he returns, will continue to be - the most dominant athlete throughout the decade, winning 64 titles and 12 major championships.

Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour de France six times in the decade, finished second, followed by Roger Federer, Michael Phelps, Tom Brady and Usain Bolt. Phelps and Brady have had their share of unfavorable media coverage, but nothing to the extend of Woods, who's given late-night talkshows plenty of material.

Winning often makes fans forget about the past. Yes, there will also be that crowd that tosses out the occasional jab (you still hear Kobe rape jokes from time to time), but around this time next decade, I could very well be writing how Tiger again was named Athlete of the Decade.