Mike Tyson's rape conviction no defense for David Duval's phoniness

When I wrote a column calling David Duval the Mike Tyson of golf, I knew someone would come flying in with an outraged, “How can you compare the princely, good-guy Duval to a convicted rapist!”

If anything it surprised me how long it took. It wasn’t mentioned until the eighth upset Duval fan’s letter. And then the writer Stuart seemed more upset that Tyson had his face tattooed than raped Desiree Washington.

Which proves the point.

No one’s booing Tyson because he has a rape on his record. Sadly, that wasn’t what outraged sports fans who attended the first stop on Tyson’s exhibition “tour.” No, fans in Youngstown, Ohio let loose because Tyson’s exhibition turned out to be exactly that - an exhibition, not anything resembling a fight.

In other words, Tyson gets scorned for doing the same thing that Duval’s doing - wringing a few more paychecks out of the public’s overblown memory of him in his prime.

Only, Duval gets cheered because of his phony-ringing supposed love of the game.

Both Duval and Tyson are hanging on long after becoming competitively irrelevant.

There’s one major difference. Tyson acknowledges that’s exactly what he’s doing. He admits he’d consider fighting a woman for the right amount of cash. He probably wouldn’t rule out a horse. Tyson endlessly analyzes himself in public, baring his soul and whatever weird state it’s in whether he’s talking to a national TV pundit or a reporter from some podunk paper.

Duval makes it out like he’s this tortured inner artist, playing for the love of the game now that the really big prize checks are a thing of the past. He’d rather be home with his wonderful wife and kids of course, but something’s driving him to keep pushing through an aching back. Not that he wants to talk about it. If this Duval sounds like every character Kevin Costner’s ever played in a movie, there’s good reason for that.

One of things Duval conveniently never wanted to talk about was the huge dollar Nike contract he signed back when he was good that ran through this season. The contract that gave Duval millions of reasons to be so “noble.”

And yes, if you only read the reader comments section on the front of TravelGolf.com, you’d think that only letters to Tim McDonald get recognized (I believe McDonald’s lap boy handles the mail).

But I’ll always read them. And I’ll call you on it when you try to throw a rape in with a face tattoo. And dispute a brilliant point.

David Duval is the Mike Tyson of golf. Whether you want to admit it or not.