Surely the sports world is anticipating the return of Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods to the game of golf. It’s one of the biggest sports stories of the first quarter of 2009. But how big is it?

While watching the ESPNews, the anchor (don’t remember which one but it was at 9:59pm PST) teased coverage of Tiger’s return by saying that his return is “perhaps the most anticipated comeback in sports history”, trailing maybe only Michael Jordan.

Excuse me? You’re kidding, right?

First of all, let’s get this clear — Tiger is returning from a serious, but not life or career threatening injury. He missed a total of 254 days. That’s eight months, and nine days. Tom Brady will miss longer than that recovering from his knee injuries. Tiger missed a bunch of time, but if anyone thinks that his return to golf is the second most anticipated return in sports history, they’re crazy.

So what was bigger?

Here are my five biggest comebacks in sports history, based on the size of the story and impact on the sport. Three of them are boxing, but I don’t care.

5 – Sugar Ray Leonard

After beating Thomas Hearns in 1981, Leonard was on top of the boxing world, but it was all derailed by an eye injury that many thought would end his career. In 1982, Leonard retired for the first time. He planned a comeback in 1984, but after one fight, hung the gloves up again.

When he came back in 1987, the world couldn’t have been happier. Leonard had fought just once in over five years when he stepped into the ring to face Marvelous Margin Hagler, and they produced one of the first major successes of pay-per-view boxing.

Leonard would go on to retire and come back several times through his career, but his return to fight Marvelous Marvin Hagler was as big an event as you could make in 1987.

4 – Muhammad Ali

How about spending your prime fighting a legal battle for refusing to enter the Army to go to Vietnam. In 1967, Ali refused to join the Army and was convicted of a felony for refusing to be inducted. He spent four years fighting legal battles before having his conviction overturned.

In October of 1970, Ali returned to the ring to face Jerry Quarry. His win in that fight led to his first fight with Joe Frazier five months later. The disappearance of Cassius Clay and the return of Muhammad Ali was a far bigger story, and more impactful event than the return of Tiger.

3 – Mario Lemieux

After trying to play through Hodgkin’s lymphoma for parts of two seasons, health issues froced Lemieux to walk away from the game when he was the best in the sport. At that point, many had placed Lemieux above Gretzky in the hockey debate, and Lemieux was still on his way up. At his peak, he was hit with a deadly disease. He tried to play through it, but ultimately had to walk away from the sport.

Two years later, Lemieux returned, and he was once again one of the best in the game. The return of the best player in the game from a deadly disease after two years of fighting for his life is bigger than, and more anticipated than a return from knee surgery.

2 – Mike Tyson

After defeating Donovan “Razor” Ruddick in back-to-back battles, Tyson served in jail. Four years and two months after his second win over Ruddick, Tyson returned to the ring against Peter McNeeley. It was an event far bigger than Tiger’s return to golf.

As per Wikipedia:

Interest in Tyson’s first comeback fight since his incarceration was high enough that it grossed more than US$96 million worldwide, including a United States record $63 million for PPV television. The fight was purchased by 1.52 million homes, setting both PPV viewership and revenue records for that time.

I got a hunch that Eldrick’s return to the links isn’t drawing 1.52 million pay-per-views.

1 – Michael Jordan

After nearly two seasons away from the game in “retirement,” Jordan returned with the simple phrase “I’m back,” and his comeback game was the highest rated NBA game in 20 years. Jordan’s return would be like if Tiger “retired” for two years, failed at another sport, then returned to golf, all while still staying in his prime. Eight months off for an injury doesn’t compare.

Jordan would comeback again later in his career, but his return to basketball after messing around in minor league baseball for a while was huge. The sports world came to a halt, and when he dropped 55 at MSG a few games into his comeback, we all realized just what we’d been missing.

Honorable Mention

• George Foreman - Wasn’t bigger right away, but as it grew it was bigger.
• Lance Armstrong - returning for 2009 Tour de France. Just wait.
• Brett Favre - seriously, compare Tiger’s comeback coverage to Favre’s. Do you really think Tiger’s a bigger story?
• Ted Williams - While it wasn’t a big story then, since everybody was doing it, baseball’s best player coming back from the war and picking up where he left off is pretty big.

I understand that you have to cover the biggest news story of the day, but you must remember that it’s only the biggest story of the day — not of all time.

Overreacting to Tiger’s return just over saturates viewers when there are real comebacks or major news stories.

I’m a big Tiger Woods fan, and like many of you, I’ll be watching his comeback round of golf. But don’t you dare put his comeback from an eight month injury timeout in the same discussion as Jordan, Tyson, Leonard, Ali or Lemieux.

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