Two More Reads On Rory's Dilemma
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Ron Sirak puts Rory's "cultural identity" issue into perspective by comparing it to other athletics-meets-politics situations.
There are precious few athletes who have been able to link principle -- their private self -- with their profession their public self. Jackie Robinson was thrust into it when he was selected to integrate baseball in 1947. Muhammad Ali chose it when he opposed the war in Vietnam War in the 1960s and was blacklisted from professional boxing for nearly four years.
Michael Jordan -- who famously refused to back a Democrat for governor of North Carolina in 1990 by saying "Republicans buy shoes, too," -- and Tiger Woods have chosen to keep their personal opinions far removed from their public self.
Rory McIlroy and I grew up about 50 miles and 17 years apart, but the similarities between us really end with our Northern Irish provenance. He probably doesn't remember much at all of our country's violent conflict, whereas it was the defining event in my formative years. His inclination seems to be to accommodate differing faiths, mine is opposition to all. He loves Caroline Wozniacki, I think her brother is kind of cute. He can hit a towering 5-iron… well, you get the picture.
But perhaps there is one thing we both understand, though McIlroy can't ever say so publicly. The island of Ireland -- Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland -- has spent much of the past 200 years exporting three things: Guinness, its people and cheap nationalism. Guinness has ruined many an Irish sportsman, but it is the latter that causes most headaches for McIlroy.
