Who will be next after Tiger?

Tiger Woods' 15 minutes of infamy should be history by now.

But just when you think it's over, you realize it ain't over until TMZ says it's over.

Woods hasn't been relieved yet by the next troubled lout self-scorched by sex, drugs, guns or gambling.

So Tiger Tales continue to make news by moving from a baffling affair to a lengthening trail of infidelity, from an SUV hitting a tree to an ambulance carrying his mother-in-law, and from astounding to frightening.

The scandal has lingered long enough to provide time to reflect on the human condition.

Personally, I'm offended that Woods reinforced a skewed perception of men. People are going to think that 100 percent of us are pigs when the latest surveys indicate the figure isn't above 95 percent.

Anyway, as Tiger's case escalates I recall June of 1991, when Michael Jordan participated in his first NBA Finals as Father's Day approached.

"What does a child get the daddy who has everything?" I pondered.

Looking back, what a stupid question.

"Another woman!"

Fast-forward to Woods' current predicament. He seemed to be living an idyllic life that maybe not even Jordan would risk squandering.

Unprecedented success on the PGA Tour - fabulous wealth - perhaps the most beautiful of all sports wives - free drinks everywhere from an adoring public -

Call it the perfect existence before realizing that the new perfect is imperfection.

"Another women indeed!" Then another and another and another. A nightclub hostess and a pancake waitress and a marketer and a porn star. In New York and Los Angeles and Las Vegas and Orlando and on to other continents.

Silly me for initially being stunned. I have been a man all my life and aware that if being a pig were a crime, prisons would be sties.

Most of us can't afford to act upon basic urges, but world-class athletes, entertainers, politicians and CEOs can.

So they do and their behavior is nothing new. It's simply exposed by new media that might expire if not for man's "transgressions."

Heck, a quarter-century ago Pete Rose huffed from a media session in Wrigley Field's visiting dugout when Tim Weigel asked about a paternity suit.

A half-century ago John F. Kennedy was the Bill Clinton of womanizing before Clinton was old enough to drool.

Nearly a century ago Babe Ruth ran around like Mickey Mantle did, long before Mantle succumbed to temptation decades before Woods did.

There used to be humor in sports writers ignoring the early-morning meanderings of athletes on the road. It wasn't anybody's business.

Now it's everybody's business thanks to talk-radio chasing mainstream newspapers, mainstream newspapers chasing supermarket tabloids and supermarket tabloids chasing paparazzi photos with a fistful of dollars.

Nobody used to know what went on behind the closed doors of modern Camelots - or in gated communities near Orlando - but now inquiring minds are intent on finding out for better or worse.

As long as there are two sexes there will be sex scandals and all we can do is hope they don't evolve from SUVs to ambulances to hearses.

mimrem@dailyherald.com