In 35 years of writing about the games people play, two teams — the early-2000s Twins and the 2009 Vikings — have risen above all others in providing the combination of on-field thrills and off-field personality and intrigue that should be classified as "Sportainment."
A few stunning moments — Joe Carter's World-Series winning home run, the Giants' upset of the Bills in the Super Bowl — stand out, too.
In 35 years, perhaps only two individuals have given reason to wonder whether the senses were functioning properly: Usain Bolt and Tiger Woods.
To watch Bolt run away from the fastest men in the world, his only concern being whether or not he posed at the finish line, was to question your sight.
To watch Woods in his prime, while competing in the most difficult game ever invented, dominate great golf courses and golf history while playing a game with which we were not familiar was to feel discombobulated in a different way.
Bolt is physically superior to his competition. He lifts and plants his feet at the same pace as smaller men, while employing a much longer stride. However much training and willpower contributed to his excellence, he was built to dominate the world of sprinting while in his prime.
Woods' dominance had different roots. He hit the ball farther than most golfers, but so did John Daly. He putted brilliantly, but so did Loren Roberts and Brad Faxon. His short game was inventive, but so was Phil Mickelson's.
Woods took control of the golf world through willpower. The willpower that prompted him to rise at 5 a.m. to do workouts no other golfer ever had considered. The willpower to spend more time on the range, to change his swing even after rising to the top of his sport, to beat down the competition in the pursuit of victories, and majors, and endorsement dollars, and crossover fame.
