KFDM COOP Posted July 11, 2008 Report Posted July 11, 2008 Tiger on verge of being sports first billionaire Tom Halliburton column for Saturday, July 12 The Port Arthur News Forbes.com reported a most unique hurdle that Tiger Woods is about to clear. Barring any further injuries or personal catastrophes, Tiger is on course to become the world's first billionaire athlete by 2010 or 2011. The website indicated his prize money only accounted for about one-tenth of Tiger's earnings. The great chunk comes from lucrative endorsement deals.... Nike Golf is the most prominent example of Woods’ selling power. When Nike signed Woods to an endorsement deal in 1996, it didn’t have a separate golf unit. It launched one in 1998, with Woods at the center of its marketing push. Last year, Nike Golf posted over $600 million in sales. It is now the biggest golf apparel company in the world. That selling power is why Woods also has big deals with Accenture, Buick and Gillette. Gatorade recently launched a new line of drinks called Gatorade Tiger. Woods will rake in about $90 million in endorsement contracts this year alone. Over the course of his career, he’s earned more than $750 million from such deals.... From this vantage point, the Rockets' signing of Brent Barry on Thursday to a two-year contract is not the kind of free agent signing that the club needs in order to get over the top of the pack in the congested Western Conference. The selling points on Brent were that father Rick and brother Jon also ended their careers in Houston and that Brent is a 46 percent shooter from three-point range and an 80 percent foul shooter. My problem is Brent's not a dominant weapon to a team such as Yao and T-Mac plus he's 36. If the Rockets are going to make a significant summer dip into the free-agent market, they need to secure a dominant weapon. The Celtics added both Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen last summer. Those are dominant, major weapons. I certainly don't feel that Brent Barry belongs in Garnett or Allen's league.... It may sound crazy that the Cowboys and Tampa Bay pull off a trade before long but here's a rumor for you to digest. A national website tossed out the idea of the Cowboys dealing Terry Glenn to the Bucs for former Longhorns beach boy Chris Simms. Pro Football Weekly indicates Simms wants out of Tampa and reports he figures to be with another team by the start of training camp. The Cowboys, Lions and Bears reportedly have shown interest in acquiring him. If Simms seems in a precarious situation with Tampa, so does Glenn at Dallas. Plus the Bucs are in the market to add a wide receiver. Not that long ago there was a Keyshawn Johnson and Joey Galloway swap between these clubs..... Staying in the NFL but switching to Roger Clemens for a second, it appears The Rocket may have been ahead of his time when he unretired his career with the Yankees and Astros. The disciple in Roger's unretirement mode may be a certain No. 4 at quarterback who formerly played for the Green Bay Packers. Pat Kirwin of NFL.com wrote on Friday that he's talked with a number of people close to Brett Favre. Kirwin thinks it's a conservative estimate that it's 80 percent certain Favre will return to the NFL this season. Even the Houston Texans are one of six or seven clubs that are considered a possibility to land his services.... Here's the latest from the GOOD GRIEF department: Although I'm sure your sentiment rests with the Astros in this conflict, don't be surprised if former pitcher Shawn Chacon wins his grievance case to be paid the remainder of his contract. Precedent suggests that a team does not get out of a contract after one bad action such as Chacon's clubhouse knockdown of general manager Ed Wade. Good grief.... Sounds as if former Astros center fielder Willy Taveras could be leaving the Rocky Mountain thin air of Colorado sometime this month. Both the Oakland and Florida franchises have expressed a strong interest in acquiring Willy.... Another outstanding Pirates left fielder appears likely to be on his way out of Pittsburgh. (Remember Barry Bonds?). The Diamondbacks and the Cardinals are said to be pursuing the services of former NL all-star slugger Jason Bay.... If that Wimbledon men's title match between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer did not deserve to be regarded as the greatest match in tennis history, it certainly belonged in the top three over the past 50 years. Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe in 1980 was one of a kind back then and the Nadal-Federer duel had five evenly contested sets to it. I disagree, though, with some of the so-called tennis experts who call this a changing of the guard right now. I think Nadal and Federer have been tossing this 1-2 thing around for awhile. It should make for interesting stuff at the US Open in New York. Federer has not exactly suffered such a devastating loss that he has no ability to bounce back. Borg, McEnroe, and Jimmy Connors were always "bouncing back" against each other in the early 80s.... When all family dynamics are considered, sports arguably has never duplicated the uniqueness of the Williams sisters. Tennis is too complete of a total test for a person's body and mind for two in the same family to have scaled the highest heights of this sport in the manner and fashion that Venus and Serena have. You can't come up with a brother tandem or sister tandem quite like this.....
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