Littman: Character most important judgment for athletes

How are you feeling, America? Pretty good right now?

Of course you are. This past weekend… How are you feeling, America? Pretty good right now?

Of course you are. This past weekend was marvelous, just a wonderful display of why we love sports.

Character.

Yes, if there’s one aspect of sports that we fans love, it’s when good things happen to people we don’t know but think deserve good things, based on their public persona. And vice versa.

So it was only fitting that over the weekend Phil “Lefty” Mickelson won the Masters. After clinching his third Masters title, Mickelson hugged his wife Amy, who last year was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a beautiful moment with plenty of tears, and not solely by those participating in said hugs.

Or as CBS announcer Jim Nantz said as Mickelson sank his last putt to win, it was “a win for the family.” Indeed.

But perhaps you’re still not convinced that Mickelson’s victory helps aim America back toward families huddling around the crackling radio listening to “The Lone Ranger” as opposed to its current direction — an all-out premarital orgy parading as a dating show on VH1.

Maybe you don’t think of Nantz as the voice of the country, which is fine, even if it is incorrect. Let’s take a look at the pulse of the sports world, as represented by some of the country’s most prominent sports writers. Here are the headlines of a just a few articles written in the past few days about the Masters.

On AOL Fanhouse, Jay Marriotti penned a column titled “The ending we needed: Phil and Amy, hugging.” Yahoo!’s Dan Wetzel wrote about Mickelson’s caddy in “Lefty’s Masters win unlike any other.” Mike Lupica provided the Daily News’ contribution to the straightening out of society with “At Masters, champion Phil Mickelson shows good guys can finish first.” And lastly, ESPN.com chimed in thanks to Rick Reilly’s “Mickelson’s win a victory for women.”

This seems like a good place to note: The Masters are held every year at the Augusta National Golf Club, a course that opened in 1933 and has yet to allow membership to a female, but hey ladies, Lefty’s got your backs.

Even with that little tidbit, just reading those headlines back made me feel all gooey inside and restored my faith in the human race, like I was watching “The Blind Side.” I’m no statistician, but if anyone wants to look into this it’d be greatly appreciated. Every time Mickelson wins a major, how many percentage points does the divorce rate drop over the next month?

But why are all these stories about the state of the American family coming out, now? Well, the Masters saw the return of Tiger Woods, who hadn’t competed in a tournament since November because he was preoccupied with his performance art piece “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Some Blondes or: Mr. Muchlove.”

Yes, if Mickelson is rebuilding the family one major at a time, Woods is the big bad wolf huffing and puffing us into a dystopia. Even though it was his first event in a few months, Woods is always going to be a favorite any time he’s competing, as he’s arguably the greatest golfer ever.

But that didn’t matter last weekend. History and odds had nothing to do with it. Or not nearly as much to do with Mickelson’s win as his great character did.

It’s the exact opposite reason that over the weekend, former Pittsburgh Steeler Santonio Holmes learned he’ll need to find a new place to live after being traded to the New York Jets. Holmes, 26, finished last season at seventh in the league with 1,248 receiving yards and was the MVP of Super Bowl XLIII in Pittsburgh’s 27-23 win against the Cardinals. He was traded for a fifth-round draft pick.

The immediate reaction for most was that the Jets stole Holmes. But Holmes has had some off-the-field issues that are causing people to back away from their gut instinct about the trade. For instance, Holmes will miss the first four games of next season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy, the league announced Monday.

He’s also in the midst of a lawsuit by a woman in Florida who claims Holmes hit her in the face with a glass at a club, according to the Associated Press. There were also misdemeanor charges for possession of marijuana in 2008 and for being involved in a domestic violence incident in 2006, but both were dropped, also as reported by the Associated Press.

And now that the initial shock of trading one of the game’s better young receivers for just a fifth-round pick is gone, people are seeing this move in the proper light. It’s just the Steelers — the beacon of all things right in sports — ridding themselves of bad character.

Sure, the Steelers quarterback has twice been accused of sexual assault within the past year, but the first was a civil suit with no following criminal investigation, and the second time no charges were filed, both according to the Associated Press. So now we can move on from that and talk about what really matters, like did you see Ben Roethlisberger’s hair when he made his statement Monday? Did he grow a mullet?

Then there’s kicker Jeff Reed, who had charges against him dismissed on Monday for an incident with the police back in October, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. It was his second such issue within the past year, as well.

Those guys are still on the team, but as long as Holmes is gone, the Steelers can proudly continue wearing gold, as they’ve earned it for being the standard for proper character conduct.

And when it comes to rooting for athletes, what else is there to pull for besides good character?