Ever since Thanksgiving in 2009, the sports world, and some parts of business and pop culture, have been watching a new reality television show, even if they didn’t know it.

The Life and Times of Tiger Woods has been on constant repeat across SportsCenter, People Magazine and TMZ nearly every day since that fateful night he crashed his Escalade into a tree.

At this point, with his divorce final and — hopefully — most of the sordid details of his indiscretions have departed our consciousness and are simply punch lines to an endless supply of jokes. Now what sports fans get to focus on is his play on the golf course.

Sports fans were treated to the peripheral noise of Tiger’s off-the-course life for months on end. It lasted so long that when he did get back out there, his game was analyzed so closely I’m surprised we don’t know his exact BMI and body fat percentage.

So-called “experts” kept wondering when his game would turn around and when he would win again. For a year now — the anniversary of his return is coming up when the PGA Tour returns to the Masters — everyone has waited for Tiger to turn it around.

I doubt I’m the first to suggest it, but maybe we who follow sports closely need to start considering that Tiger just might never return to who he was and won’t even come close.

It seems like every time we hear about a tournament he’s in, we hear about the success he once had at that tournament, only to see that he stumbles and finishes in the middle of the pack on a consistent basis.

Think about it. He held the No. 1 ranking for 281 weeks and because he was Tiger Woods, no one could imagine that title going to anyone else. When it did, people were shocked and upset, like he still deserved it.

But how can a man who hasn’t won a tournament since 2009 be considered in any way the world’s best golfer?

The fact is he just isn’t anymore. He’s a good golfer competing against the best in the world, and has lost that edge he had for so long. The edge that made those he was playing with tremble on the back nine and essentially hand him tournament victories.

I do realize, though, that he’s one of the biggest names in sports, not just in golf, and that regardless of my opinion on the guy, people somewhere do still care about what and how he’s doing.

I just wish we could mute some stories from getting forced on us.

As a member of the “establishment” that puts out the stories, I know full well that the people on SportsCenter and such shows are just doing their jobs. But hearing about Brett Favre, the Barry Bonds trial and Tiger Woods’ game gets old in a big hurry.

The problem is that the only reason those stories get coverage is because, despite what a lot of people say, even more of the population does in fact care and read about or watch those Favre, Bonds and Woods stories. If people didn’t read and watch, SportsCenter wouldn’t cover it, bottom line.

So if the sports community doesn’t want to hear the “TMZ stories,” we’ve got to stop paying attention to them so the message will get sent.

You as the reader decide what you read about, whether you like to believe it or not. My challenge to you is to let us in the media — in this case, a lot bigger media outlets than the Iowa State Daily — know you don’t care by simply ignoring what you don’t care about.

Personally, I don’t give two shakes about Tiger, Favre or Bonds’ trial. So I don’t read about them online and flip the channel when they come on television.

Until those putting out the stories have a reason to not do so, the only people to blame for it are those taking in the content. Sports news is like voting. Your voice as a reader or viewer matters.

Just in this case, it’s a silent voice that matters.