Ahhh, sports talk radio. Where guests can never be completely certain exactly what awaits them when they go on the air to be interviewed. Hank Haney, former swing coach for Tiger Woods, found that out the hard way Friday. Haney went on WFAN with Boomer & Carton, wound up in a heated exchange with co-host Craig Carton, and wound up hanging up.
Haney was on the show to promote his book, "The Big Miss," which details the time Haney spent with Woods. Sports Radio Interviews has the entire transcript, which includes an animated Carton calling Haney that he "betrayed" Woods. Carton also called Haney "a horrible human being" and "the scum of the earth." After the jump, the portion of the exchange where it got really testy.
Tiger let you into his life, paid you a lot of money I assume to be his coach and you don’t view it as a basic violation of the man’s trust:
“I view it as my memories too. These weren’t just his memories. He didn’t have them exclusively. I wanted to share my observations, my thoughts about his greatness, the complexities that make him up as a golfer and a person. If I had all positive things in the book it wouldn’t have been an honest book. I wanted to write an honest book about working with Tiger Woods and the observations that I made about his greatness and what it was like to coach him. I realize people are going to have different opinions. I’m not the first coach that has ever written a book. (Host: It doesn’t make it right though.) It doesn’t make them right either but if I broke the code then they broke the code too.”
That is such an egotistical thing to compare you as Tiger’s coach against Butch Harmon as Tiger’s coach:
“Like you’ve said you have never met me and I’m looking forward to when we do meet. I’m sure you will have quite a different opinion because it’s not an opinion that many people share but I understand your opinion, that was a chapter in the book that summed up Tiger’s record and also kind of predicted how I thought he was going to do in the future in terms of Jack Nicklaus’ record. You’ve chosen to take things the way you want to take them but other people have chosen a different path and have enjoyed the read. It’s a great insight into the greatest player that I think has ever played. (Host: Do you think of yourself as a martyr?) No sir I don’t.”
You betrayed the most fundamental of trust that anyone could have. You betrayed the man’s trust!
“I thought this was an interview. Why won’t you let me talk? (Host: This is offensive to me!) Ok guys. (Host: Now you’re going to hang up because you are a coward.) I’m not going to hang up. I would never hang up. (Host: Good. Don’t be a coward.) You don’t even know me. (Host: How many times in the book do you write and it seems like it’s every freakin’ page, that every time Tiger hits a bad shot you’re like ‘I saw that coming, I could’ve fixed that.’) I never wrote that. (Host: It’s in the entire freaking book!) You’re making stuff up now. You said that these other coaches broke the code so at least I’m in good company.”