Tiger Woods

TIGER WOODS

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Currently the World No. 1, he has been one of the highest-paid athletes in the world for several years according to Forbes.

From childhood Woods was raised as a Buddhist, and he actively practiced this faith from childhood until well into his adult professional golf career. In a 2000 article, Woods was quoted as saying he "believes in Buddhism... Not every aspect, but most of it." He has attributed his deviations and infidelity to his losing track of Buddhism. He said, "Buddhism teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught."

Tiger Woods is registered to vote as an independent. In January 2009, Woods delivered a speech commemorating the military at the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. In April 2009, Woods visited the White House while in the Washington, D.C. area promoting the golf tournament he hosts, the AT&T National.

 Woods underwent laser eye surgery in 1999. Before this surgery, Woods eyesight was minus 11, meaning he was almost legally blind. He considered the surgery a big help in his career and a good alternative to the glasses and contact lenses. He immediately started winning tour events after the surgery. He received money from TLC Laser Eye Centers to endorse them. In 2007, he had a second laser eye surgery when his vision began to deteriorate again.

On March 18, 2013, Woods announced that he and skier Lindsey Vonn were dating.

Woods turned professional in 1996, and by April 1997 he had already won his first major, the 1997 Masters in a record-breaking performance, winning the tournament by 12 strokes. He first reached the number one position in the world rankings in June 1997. Through the 2000s, Woods was the dominant force in golf, spending 264 weeks from August 1999 to September 2004 and 281 weeks from June 2005 to October 2010 as world number one. From December 2009 to early April 2010, Woods took leave from professional golf to focus on his marriage after he admitted infidelity. His multiple infidelities were revealed by several different women, through many worldwide media sources. This was followed by a loss of golf form, and his ranking gradually fell to a low of No. 58 in November 2011.  He snapped a career-long winless streak of 107 weeks when he captured the Chevron World Challenge in December 2011. After winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 25, 2013, he ascended to the No.1 Ranking once again.

Woods has broken numerous golf records. He has been world number one for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks of any other golfer. He has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record eleven times, the Byron Nelson Award for lowest adjusted scoring average a record eight times, and has the record of leading the money list in ten different seasons. He has won 14 professional major golf championships, the second highest of any player (Jack Nicklaus leads with 18), and 79 PGA Tour events, second all time behind Sam Snead. He has more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer. He is the youngest player to achieve the career Grand Slam, and the youngest and fastest to win 50 tournaments on tour. Additionally, Woods is only the second golfer, after Jack Nicklaus, to have achieved a career Grand Slam three times. Woods has won 18 World Golf Championships, and won at least one of those events in each of the first 11 years after they began in 1999. Woods is the only golfer to win The Silver Medal and The Gold Medal at The Open Championship.

Peyton Manning

Peyton Manning

Peyton Williams Manning (born March 24, 1976) is an American football quarterback for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). He played for the Indianapolis Colts for 14 seasons from 1998 to 2011. He is a son of former NFL quarterback Archie Manning and an elder brother of New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning.

Manning was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of Olivia (née Williams) and NFL quarterback Elisha Archibald "Archie" Manning III. He married his wife, Ashley, in Memphis on St. Patrick's Day in 2001. Ashley was introduced to him by her parents' next-door neighbor the summer before Manning's freshman year in college. Peyton and wife Ashley have twins, a boy and a girl, Marshall Williams and Mosley Thompson.

Manning reportedly has an excellent memory for plays. He memorized the Colts' playbook within a week after being drafted, and In 2012 was able to precisely recall the details and timing of a specific play he had used at Tennessee 16 years earlier. During the summer, Archie, Peyton, Eli, and Cooper run the Manning Passing Academy, a five-day camp which aims to improve the offensive skills of quarterbacks, wide receivers, tight ends, and running backs. In addition to the Mannings, the camp has included many prominent players from football as coaches, such as Colts wide receivers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne.

Peyton, along with Archie, authored a book entitled Manning: A Father, His Sons, and a Football Legacy, which was released in 2000. The book covers Archie's and Cooper's lives and careers, and Peyton's life and career up to the time that the book was released, and examines football from both Archie's and Peyton's points-of-view.

In 2009, Peyton, Eli, and Archie co-authored a children's book entitled Family Huddle, which describes in simple text and pictures how the three Manning brothers played football as young boys (Scholastic Press; illustrations by Jim Madsen).

Manning has donated over $8,000 to Republican politicians, among them Fred Thompson, Bob Corker, and former President George W. Bush.

In regard to religion, Manning is a devout member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and prays before every game.

Manning played college football for the University of Tennessee, leading the Volunteers to the 1997 SEC Championship in his senior season. However, No. 3 Tennessee lost to the No. 2 Nebraska Cornhuskers 42-17 in the Orange Bowl giving Nebraska and Tom Osborne their 3rd national championship in 4 years. He was chosen by the Indianapolis Colts with the first overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft. From 1998 to 2010, he led the Colts to eight (seven AFC South and one AFC East) division championships, two AFC championships, and one Super Bowl championship (Super Bowl XLI). He has won a record four league most valuable player awards, was the most valuable player of Super Bowl XLI, has been named to twelve Pro Bowls, has twelve 4,000-yard passing seasons, and is the Indianapolis Colts' all-time leader in passing yards (54,828) and touchdown passes (399). In 2009, he was named the best player in the NFL, and Fox Sports, along with Sports Illustrated, named him the NFL player of the decade for the 2000s.

In May 2011, he underwent neck surgery to alleviate neck pain and arm weakness he dealt with during the previous few seasons before signing a five-year, $90 million contract extension with the Colts in July 2011. Manning had hoped to play in the 2011 season, but in September 2011 he underwent a second, and much more serious surgery: a level one cervical fusion procedure. Manning had never missed an NFL game in his career, but was forced to miss the entire 2011 season. He was released by the Colts on March 7, 2012, and after an almost two-week period where he visited with and worked out for several NFL teams, he signed with the Denver Broncos on March 20, 2012.

Manning's pre-snap routine has earned him the nickname "The Sheriff", and he is one of the most recognizable and parodied players in the NFL. Teams led by Manning more often than not use the hurry-up offense in place of the standard huddle.