A far more telling story about Tiger

When I first heard that Tiger had a string of mistresses, my initial reaction was, ho-hum, at least half the men presented with those same opportunities would do the same.

When I read about the extent of his sexual activity, and how he would often squeeze two or three girlfriends per day, I thought, well, those are the steroids talking. But then I thought, a lot of other top athletes juice as well. (The evidence presented by our eyes is always more compelling than the denials issued by the athletes.)

While neither the steroids nor the mistresses make Tiger a candidate for sainthood, neither necessarily showed behavior that far from the norm, either.

Then I read a few excerpts from the recent book on Tiger by his former coach, Hank Haney. Much of what Haney described was just regular hijinks, what most would place in the category of relatively harmless practical jokes.

But the one thing that really stood out was when Haney said that when Tiger was having dinner at a restaurant, as soon as he was finished eating, he would get up and leave, expecting everyone see to get up and follow, whether or not they were finished with their own food: "When he was done -- and he habitually ate fast -- you were done."

That I was thrown by. Just getting up and in the middle of a meal and expecting everyone else to follow? Even among some of the extreme narcissists I've been acquainted with, I've never known -- or even heard of -- anyone else who does that.

That, more than any of his other transgressions, indicates a personality far from the norm.