HBO's two-part docuseries covers all the highs and lows
1. Hello. How are you? It's been a little while. This is the first edition of Traina Thoughts since I handed out 2020 Sports Media Awards on Dec. 22.
If you missed it over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, there was also a mega, year-end, two-part roundtable episode of the SI Media Podcast with Peter Schrager from Good Morning Football and Andrew Perloff from The Dan Patrick Show.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.
You can also watch Part I and Part II of the podcast on YouTube.
There will be a new SI Media Podcast out tomorrow with Andrew Marchand of the New York Post and reporter Armen Keteyian, who is an executive producer on HBO's upcoming two-part docuseries on Tiger Woods simply titled Tiger.
I watched both episodes Tuesday (the first episode debuts this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET, the second episode airs on Sunday, Jan. 17 at 9 p.m. ET) and tweeted something about it last night.
Naturally, people asked me whether the doc was good. I want to be fully transparent with my take on the series. I'm not a golf guy and I've never been a Tiger Woods guy. Even before his world came crashing down on that eventful Thanksgiving night, I thought he was a phony, and the fawning media coverage of Tiger made me cringe.
So instead of analyzing whether the docuseries was "good," here's what I'll tell you. Part I is all about Tiger becoming a golf sensation. It covers his childhood and takes you through his dominance on the course.
Part II is all about Tiger's philandering and then, of course, his Masters win in 2019. Naturally, I enjoyed Part II more than Part I.
And HBO did not hold back. I wouldn't be shocked if Woods and his family canceled their HBO subscriptions and deleted the HBO Max app off their iPhones.
I mainly judge a documentary's worth by seeing whether it taught me something. I did learn some things from Tiger. I don't want to give specifics because I know people despise spoilers, but there are a few revelations, but those are about Tiger's personal life.
If you're a Tiger fan and you just want to bask in his greatness on the course, watch Part I and the last 15 minutes of Part II.
2. Random thoughts from the past few days:
• I thought Boomer Esiason was a very good listen filling in for Tony Romo on Sunday's Cardinals-Rams game.
• If you are someone who has a close relationship with your father, you should make sure you take the time to watch this clip from Dan Le Batard's final day on ESPN's Highly Questionable.
• This tweet by play-by-play man Dave Pasch was a good summation of the weirdness that broadcasters had to deal with in 2020.
3. If you've read my columns over the years or followed me on Twitter, you know that I love a good reporters-get-fooled-by-fake-Twitter-account story. The one that took place earlier this week with a fake Adam Schefter account actually making it onto SportsCenter was a late Christmas gift.
4. With Raphael Warnock's beating Atlanta Dream owner Kelly Loeffler in the Georgia Senate runoff, it's important to remember that Loeffler's own players did what they could to help her opponent.
LeBron James certainly didn't forget, and he's ready to take action.
5. If you missed it a few days ago, Scott Van Pelt's "Bad Beats of the Year" is a must-watch.
6. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Alex Trebek's final shows hosting Jeopardy! are airing this week, and he kicked things off Monday by sharing an emotional message.
7. SPORTS VIDEO OF THE DAY: J.J. Watt apologized to Deshaun Watson for "wasting one of his years" after the Texans' season finale on Sunday.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.