Calendar suggests big year for Tiger

Happy New Year!

According to the Chinese calendar, the year 2010 is the "Year of the Tiger."

Given what has happened to Tiger Woods the past five weeks, it appears the calendar jumped the gun.

In the wake of his Thanksgiving night auto accident, his infidelity toward his wife, Elin, his connection to a Canadian doctor who allegedly deals in performance-enhancing drugs and his decision to take an indefinite leave of absence from the PGA Tour, 2009 was truly the Year of the Tiger, trumping Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez's steroid confessions, Rick Pitino's sex romp in an Italian restaurant and Steve Phillips shacking up with a fellow ESPN employee.

Add to the fact Woods failed to win one of golf's majors last year and still was the Tour's Player of the Year keeps him atop the list. He'll have to work pretty hard to trump what he "accomplished" in '09 for 2010 to be the "Year of the Tiger."

• ANDREWS' SUPPORT GROUP -- ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews, who made news this year instead of reporting it after a creep videotaped her prancing around her hotel room naked, had a lot of support from the college football community during her ordeal.

Among those in her group was Pam Tebow, the mother of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow.

"We would talk on the phone and write letters to each other, and her whole thing was -- 'OK, what do you do with it now?' " Andrews told the Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News. "Now I'm starting to say, 'You know, you're right. We need to do something.' Laws need to be strengthened. Safety needs to increased at hotels. They need to be reprimanded for this."

Michael Barrett, the 48-year-old stalker from Chicago, pleaded guilty in December to the crime and is awaiting sentencing.

• MORE OCHOCINCO -- Leave it to Chad Ochocinco to spice up what was looking like a possibly dull matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and the New York Jets.

The big-mouthed Bengals wide receiver proclaimed Wednesday that Darrelle Revis, the Jets' outstanding cornerback, couldn't cover him "in a brown paper bag in on a corner of a Manhattan street inside a phone booth." He also said he had a touchdown celebration planned in which he'll don a Cincinnati firefighter's helmet and sit on the shoulders of one of his linemen to mock Jets superfan "Fireman Ed" Anzalone.

The Bengals already have clinched the AFC North title and aren't expected to play their starters for extended periods Sunday night against the Jets, who will be in the postseason should they win.

• BOWLING FOR DOLLARS -- "I sat down at noon Saturday to watch the Little Caesars Bowl, and Mrs. Insider decided I should go get pizza for the family," wrote David Thomas of the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram. "Then I sat down to watch the Meineke Car Care Bowl, and Mrs. Insider reminded me I promised to get her car's oil changed.

"After that, there was no way I was going to try to watch the Emerald Bowl."

COMPILED BY STEVE CARP LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL