Tiger Woods announced on his blog earlier this month that he'll serve as an honorary captain for Stanford as they take on Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl on January 2nd. Said Woods:
Before I begin the new season, I will attend the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 2 in Arizona to watch Stanford play Oklahoma State. Cardinal head coach David Shaw asked me to be an honorary team captain, and I happily accepted. For Coach Shaw to think highly enough of me to be involved in the game and be able to talk to his kids is very special.
I'm very close to Stanford. They've done so much for me in my life. Everyone knows Coach Shaw and I had a class together. We go way back. It's neat to be able to come back and help him any way that I can.
Woods is a graduate of Stanford and maintains close ties to the school but naturally he'll be a lightning rod for controversy, probably the rest of his career. As SBN's Stanford blog Rule of Tree put it,
Woods, who had a class with Shaw when they attended Stanford together, has served as an honorary captain for the Cardinal before. He performed the ceremonial coin toss and was inducted into the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame at the 2009 Big Game, where he stood on the field at halftime with his 2-year old daughter and wife, Elin Nordegren. One week later, the man who then-Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh called "the greatest competitor of our generation," was involved in a bizarre car accident outside his Florida-area home. You know the rest. The Cardinal football team's dramatic rise coincided with Woods's dramatic fall.
To discuss the Fiesta Bowl with Oklahoma State fans, head to Cowboys Ride For Free. To discuss the Fiesta Bowl with Stanford fans, check out Rule of Tree.