Outrage overkill

 More and more these days I suspect the entire world is running a low-grade brain fever, and not just because the Party Formerly Known As Republican is holding its convention  this week in Milwaukee. 

(Although the sight of all those Trump Moonies wearing maxi-pads on their ears in honor of their nicked messiah makes me think the fever is more than low-grade in some precincts. Good lord, are these people certifiable or what?)

Anyway.

Anyway, another piece of evidence comes to us from Royal Troon over in Scotland, where The Open championship is in full cry this weekend. The opening round belonged to an Englishman named Daniel Brown, who led the way to the clubhouse with a 6-under 65, and to the increasingly painful spectacle of an old and wounded Tiger Woods hobbling around on his way to an 8-over 79.

He's going to miss another cut in a major today, and frankly it hurts to watch him anymore. You admire his courage, but question his sanity. And some people have ... other questions.

Which brings us to Mark Roe, a commentator for Sky Sports, who said out loud what some people thought he shouldn't have said out loud: That Tiger must be taking painkillers because he was wearing a telltale thousand-yard stare out there.

Now, it was probably silly of Roe to base his conclusion on how a guy's eyes looked. Truth is, the Tiger Stare has always been part of his mystique. You especially saw it when things weren't going well, or when he was hunting you down on a Sunday afternoon. Either way, you'd never wanted him to train it on you.

That said, the reaction to Roe's comment has been, like so much else these days, generously garnished with hysteria. Folks brimming with the usual outrage came crawling out of their social media holes everywhere, saying how dare this man imply that Tiger was some sort of DRUG ADDICT.

Thing is, Roe didn't imply that at all.

Other thing is, what he did say wasn't remotely controversial. Of course Tiger's likely taking painkillers for his various infirmities, which at 48 are legion. He's got surgical knees and surgical ankles and surgical other stuff, and he's walking around on that leg he ruined in his now-famous car accident. Even if it's only maximum-strength Tylenol or Aleve most days, you've gotta figure he's taking something when the aches gang up on him. And when he's trying to make it through 18 holes in a major, the something is likely a mite stronger.

To acknowledge that into a hot mic might not have been the smartest play, but it was only acknowledging the obvious. And it was a good country mile from saying, oh, my God, Tiger Woods is a junkie.

But, hey. People gonna outrage these days, even if the outrage is wholly inorganic and miles over the top. It's just what we do now.

Brain fever, I tell you. Brain fever.