I was having a conversation with a friend of mine the other day and he said he couldn't understand why everyone was so shocked that the most popular and recognizable athlete in the world might have a mistress (or three) on the side.

Athletes always have mistresses, he reasoned. They are the ones who have the financial means to pay off whomever they need to pay off (sometimes, the mistress, sometimes the wife) to keep things quiet.

So I thought about that for a moment and it made sense.

Why was everyone acting so shocked? I mean, Tiger has at least appeared squeaky clean and tabloid free for so long perhaps people forgot that he is and remains both a human being and a man - and a man with nearly unlimited financial means at that. Just look at the facts.

Athlete, wealth and fame has nearly always equaled some sort of issue or other eventually.

Perhaps it was just a matter of time.

The thing that aggravates me is when people start blaming the media for all the hoopla. That's a joke. I read in a sports section this morning that the Yahoo CEO said Tiger's story was more profitable for them in ad revenue (due to so many hits and search requests) than even the death of Michael Jackson. So folks can say what they want about the media dragging a good man down and all that, but the media is only giving the people what they want - period.

Sex (and scandal) sells. It always has and it always will.

You may not like it, but that's the reality of the situation.

Personally, I feel that it's a family matter and should remain private. I hate to see yet another marriage in trouble, but these things happen. He played, and now he's paying for it in embarrassment and negative attention. He has benefited from positive media attention for so many years and now he's seeing the dark side. That's the way these things work.

And Tiger has no one to blame but himself for the "Transgressions" and the storm it has caused. People (and athletes, it seems) think they can deflect the media and hide things, but whatever is being hidden will always come out. That's why it's always better for people to be honest and up front instead of hiding behind ambiguous statements posted on a website.

It's simple, really.

You either tell the story yourself or have the newspapers and Internet sites tell it for you.

Either way, none of it should have surprised us.