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Tiger and Phil, together again, in a story headlined 'The Legend of Swamp Ass'
Bob Levey
One never can tell where Tiger Woods’ name will turn up, of Phil Mickelson's, for that matter, as in this instance, when both turned up in an amusing story with this headline: “The Legend of Swamp Ass and Other Tales of Football's Most Pivotal Partnership.”
The story, by Don Banks of Bleacher Report, is about the partnership between the quarterback and the center and the snap of the ball. In the story, Peyton Manning recalls his long-time relationship in Indianapolis with Colts' center Jeff Saturday.
“We used to have these code words for a snap count,” Manning explained. “A lot of teams use Monday is on 1, Tuesday is on 2, Wednesday is on 3. Jeff and I always had a couple to call at the line of scrimmage. Tiger was on 1, because Tiger [Woods] was the No. 1-ranked player in the world, and Phil [Mickelson] was on 2.”
This is only the first part of a very funny Manning anecdote that won’t (can’t?) be repeated here. But simply stumbling across Tiger’s and Phil's names in a football story that includes "the legend of swamp ass" is amusing in itself.
Suffice it to say that were Manning still playing quarterback and still using Tiger and his World Ranking as a code for a snap count, his center wouldn’t snap the ball until the 1,148th “hut.”
Presumably a delay-of-game penalty would have been called well before that.