By now, everyone has heard what Tiger Woods had to say in his pseudo-press conference this morning. About how sorry he is, about the mistakes he made and that he doesn't know when he's going to return to golf. You know what though? I don't care. Not one bit. His words mean absolutely nothing to me.
Let's start with a little back story. In 1997 I was 14 years old and I had never even dreamed of touching a golf club, until this young guy with a ton of charisma won the Masters. I wanted to do that too! I wanted to play golf for the first time in my life. Luckily, I had a cousin who was a Varsity College golfer and I got to go out and hit the links with him for the first time. I was bad. Really bad. But I knew that I enjoyed the time on the course and wanted to become better so that I could be like Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods was my favorite golfer. Though a very private person, he somehow made his fans feel connected to him.
It wasn't just me either. Golf's popularity has probably quintupled since Woods came on the scene. He and golf were on the rise and it seemed that Woods' greatness would never cease to be. All that came crashing down when it was discovered that Woods had been having an affair with, not one or two, but, 12 women. I guess we shouldn't really be surprised that a Super Star athlete was unfaithful to his wife, but if anyone says that they KNEW that Woods was getting in on the action (pun intended), they would be lying through their teeth. NO ONE saw anything like this coming from the Golden Boy who is threatening one of the game's greatest records.
I started to listen to Woods' press conference and then truly realized that I don't give one good damn about what he had to say. If this were the 127th ranked golfer in the world he'd just fix his marriage or get a divorce and move on with his life. But not Woods. Not the greatest golfer of this generation who could never be rattled. I think one of the parts that made me the most upset was apologizing to his "business partners." That just goes to show us that he doesn't care about golf the same way he used to. Today's golf headlines should be discussing what is taking place at the Accenture Match Play Championship, not what Woods had to say.
Ernie Els was one of the first to speak up about Woods' timing. He thinks it's pretty clear that this statement was made at this time SPECIFICALLY to take away from Accenture's (one of the companies that dropped Woods) match play tournament. How immature can one person be? That's Woods, not Ernie. When you mess up, you're going to pay for it, or in this case, not get paid because of it. Do you really blame a company for not wanting to be associated with someone whose adultered his marriage with multiple women? I am almost ashamed to be a golfer because it means I have something in common with Woods.
In addition to all this, Woods didn't even allow questions to be answered at this "press conference." I don't know why the press are still letting Woods call the shots. This man has opened his life up for all of us to see, kind of an unwritten contract of being famous, but wants privacy. You want privacy? Head out on your yacht. You messed up and many want to know what you're going to do to fix it. That is our right. I wish all major outlets would have boycotted the Woods "press conference." The Golf Writer's Association of America did just that and I applaud their efforts. They feel, and I agree with them, that by not letting the press be a true part of this statement it really makes the event lack credibility. But hey, look at Woods. He's all about lacking credibility. I hope he never gets it back. I used to root for "Tiger" to win. Now I will root for "Woods" to lose.
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Really?!? I think society has it all wrong for the way they have handled this situation. We are known for setting celebrity figures up on a pedestal, then digging in to their lives just to tear them back down and then forgive them. I'm not arguing what Tiger did was wrong, but he doesn't OWE us an apology. Unless you're someone directly related to his infidelities (family, friends, family of his 12 mistresses), this should not be of your concern. You picked up a golf club and looked to emulate Tiger's golf game because of what he was able to do on the course. His mastery of the game and pursuit of excellence is what gave him his fame, and that has not changed.
ReplyDeleteI'm willing to bet that nothing about Tiger is the reason you decided to get married. I'm guessing you were not looking to Tiger to emulate his married life, and I'm willing to bet that family values will not be altered based on the current discoveries of Mr. Woods' affairs. You shouldn't be ashamed to be a golfer because it associates you with Tiger Woods, because he STILL IS THE GREATEST GOLFER EVER!!! You should be ashamed if you idolized his social life, and Tiger Woods off of the golf course. That's your fault, not Tiger's!!
Tiger Woods is a human being, he makes mistakes like everyone else. It's not his fault that society called him a hero and millions idolized him. But let's not forget why we did; because he is a kick-ass golfer. I was more disappointed in the media's reaction and coverage of his social life since the day it broke. It's none of my business. And yet we dig in to it and pry a public apology out of him because we feel like we deserve it. WHY? The worst part of it, is nobody really cares about the apology. I mean, analyst sat and tried to predict what he'd say and if Elin would be by his side. And then immediately following they talked about how he said everything the expected he'd say, and dissected the apology as if they were dissecting his golf swing. The real kicker is that the part everyone really wants to hear, the gossip about the affairs, why he did it, his relationship with Elin and his family, is none of our business either. I'm so glad Tiger took the approach that he did, by denying the media any Q&A session following his statement. The information he provided was beyond what he "owed" us.
Yes, I can see why sponsors decided to pull their affiliation with Woods. Because they are a business and they have to look out for their best interests. But as far as Tiger being immature for the timing of his statement, how can you make that claim? What gives anyone the right to decide when he is ready to release a statement? No matter when he would have decided to address the situation, people would have said it was bad timing.
Love him or hate him now, that's up to you. But if you watch the game of golf because of a pure love/enjoyment for the sport, than how can you deny agreeing with greatness? Remember, it's not his golf game that caused you to feel this way, it's your desire to follow the other intricate details of his life. Either way, he's still got you watching!!!
It is interesting the way society and the media portray this thing. I can say I honestly don't care, I haven't heard or seen any of what took place today. I just think back to all the old time superstars that had this unspoken rule with sportswriters that anything they saw off the field was hush-hush. I think Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, etc. etc. Those guys' personal lives are stories now but when they were playing a lot of the scandals were never released to the public. Ruth's infidelity with his wife, Mantle's carousing, and even to some extent Michael Jordan's affairs and gambling issues. I think that's where it started to shift. Jordan's gambling. I think it says more about the quality of sportswriting that has taken the biggest hit. What used to be a proud community with tons of integrity is now nothing more than TMZ's sports section. ESPN reports twitters and rumors instead of cold, hard facts. I can't even watch full episodes of Sportscenter anymore because everyone wants to guess and predict and dive into things that aren't even real. We live in a fantasy world that is perpetuated by television programs desperate for ratings. It's disgusting that sports has sunk to the low level of soap opera esque reality TV. This isn't what sports is about and I would rather hear about an event rather than a drama.
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