Golf.com goes to the Golf Magazine archives and pulls out this article by Dan Jenkins following Jack Nicklaus' 1978 Players Championship victory.

I always enjoy reading these real-time reports of past champions, the legends of the game. Something that's always struck me (and many others) are the parallels between Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

Here's another one: They both had a knack for saying things that could be construed as insulting by their fellow-competitors. Remember all the trouble Tiger got into when he first arrived on the PGA Tour and would talk about how he managed to win without even having his "A" game? Woods still says things like that occasionally. The difference now is that his fellow-competitors are so beaten down - so whipped - they no longer bother to object. (Because when Tiger says it, it's true.)

Jack was the same way. For example, at that 1978 Players Championship (Nicklaus' third win in the event's first six years; he's still the only 3-time winner), Nicklaus won with a final-round 75 that was birdie-free.

Jenkins quotes Nicklaus saying this:

Can you imagine what would happen if Rory Sabbatini said something like that? Of course, there's a huge, huge difference between Nicklaus, Woods, and Rory (or anything else). Still just a tad indelicate by Jack, wouldn't you say?

I recall when Nicklaus was approaching 50 and was being barraged with questions about how often he'd play the Senior Tour. He wasn't all that jazzed about the Senior Tour, Nicklaus explained, saying (I'm paraphrasing from memory, but the exact words were something very close to this), "Why would I want to go play a bunch of guys I've been beating all my life?"