Michael Jordan isn't used to being bossed around. He isn't asked to change his behavior very often. He isn't used to being told "no."
Which is why it must suck to be the San Fransisco city official charged with delivering this message: "Uh, hey, Mike? Could you put out the cigar?"
But there is such an official: The City of San Fransisco reminded the PGA Tour that no smoking is allowed at Harding Park -- a San Fransisco public course -- and that Jordan has to put the cigar away when he serves as an honorary captain at the President's Cup this week.
City officials were alerted to the Jordan cigar crisis Tuesday, when a photo of Jordan during his Presidents Cup practice round was published by the San Fransisco Chronicle. Jordan was happily lighting up cigars on Tuesday, seemingly oblivious to the rule. But he wasn't. Jordan knew of the regulations and decided to smoke anyway, probably because nobody had the stones to make him stop.
During an an interview with PGATour.com he said: "I heard this is a public place, so they limit what you can smoke. I'm not even supposed to be smoking, but this was a practice round and no one said anything."
Well, if it's a practice round, we suppose it was OK. But Jordan has a borderline cigar habit.
Ideally, Jordan said, he would like to smoke "a minimum of three" cigars per round.
What?! Three cigars per round? Assuming most of Jordan's golf rounds hover around the four-hour mark -- he's a pretty good golfer, and he probably plays exclusive clubs 90 percent of the time -- that's three cigars for every four hours Jordan is on the golf course. That is intense.
But not this weekend. Jordan will have to abstain from the cigars. Perhaps a nicotine patch is in order?
Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.
