The Tiger Woods Saga (Click Here to Leave/Read Comments)

The Tiger Woods Saga Continues...

Step 1: Sex Therapy

Step 2: Address the World

Like watching a funeral. That was my response when someone asked me what I thought about the Tiger Woods press conference on Friday. I also couldn't help but feel like I was watching ARod's steroid speech all over again. You know what I mean...almost like someone handed him the speech five minutes before the press conference and told him, "just read this and it will all work out". Many people in the media have questioned whether or not Tiger’s speech was sincere or not calling it staged and accusing Tiger of faking his emotions. Tiger has also been ripped for hand picking the people in attendance and for not allowing any questions to be asked. Herein lies the problem. Tiger was in a no win situation because no matter how he handled that press conference, there would’ve been people criticizing him. What’s the difference if he let people ask questions or not? No one ever really got anything out of Tiger even before all of this came out…when he was still the golden boy who did no wrong. Whether he won or lost, you always got the same canned responses that could never be twisted or make him look bad. So what makes anyone think this would be any different? I’m not trying to defend Tiger or say that I feel bad for him, but I just don’t see the point in getting on him because he wouldn’t let every reporter in the world come to the press conference and ask the same questions which he wouldn’t have really answered anyway. And I DO think he feels bad for what he’s done. He may not have showed it the way that everyone wanted him to in front of the whole world, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel bad.

I’m not sure why the media, and the entire world for that matter, feels entitled to know everything about what has happened simply because he is famous. I understand that being one of the most recognizable people on earth and making the kind of money that Tiger makes comes with a price, but that price is not to let everyone know what goes on between him and his wife. You all know that he cheated on his wife and that’s where it ends. Please don’t mistake any of this for me feeling bad for Tiger. I have always respected Tiger and he is my favorite golfer for the simple fact that he has more talent than anyone in his sport, and even with that being the case, he still works harder than everyone else. After what he has done, I find it impossible to have any respect for him as a man anymore and I don’t feel bad for him one bit. He brought this on himself and now he has to deal with it. For me to say that I feel bad for his family (wife, kids, mother) goes without saying. But I also feel bad for all of the little kids who idolize Tiger and their parents. I went through this myself (Met fan growing up during the 80’s…can you say Daryl Strawberry?) and it’s impossible for a little kid to understand these things. Plus, if you’re a parent, how do you explain to your kid that Tiger can’t play golf for a while because he was too busy sleeping around?

Tiger was extremely close with his father Earl who passed away a few years ago, and it was very well known that Earl had raised Tiger to be a star. Earl had devoted his life to training Tiger not just physically but also mentally, teaching him how to handle the game and also to handle himself with the media. That being said, I just can’t understand how Tiger thought he would be able to sleep around like he did and get away with it. Did he really think that this story wasn’t going to come out at some point? I just don’t get it. During his speech, Tiger mentioned the fact that he stopped living by the core values he was taught to believe in, and he knew what he was doing was wrong. He also mentioned that he started to think that he was entitled to do whatever he wanted to because of how hard he had worked and everything that he had achieved. Where has all your mental toughness gone Tiger? Maybe it’s because I don’t have a billion dollars, but I can’t ever imagine thinking, at any point in my life, that I am entitled to do whatever I want. The way I look at it is he should’ve taken the Derek Jeter approach: enjoy being famous, enjoy being rich, don’t get tied down to one woman, and then when you are sick of that, get married and live happily ever after.

Tiger said all of the right things: ”I’m deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior”, “My apology will come from my behavior over time”, “I let everyone down”, “I’m embarrassed”…blah blah blah. The bottom line is, this press conference was a formality. Tiger Woods is the hot story right now, and because of that, he got up in front of the world with a prepared speech and did what every celebrity does when they do something wrong. I think people in this country are so hypocritical though. Everyone is upset because he didn’t seem sincere enough, or he didn’t allow them to ask questions, or whatever anyone else wants to complain about. In the end, people just want to hear the dirty details of it all. Eventually this will all fade away and there will be some other story for everyone to talk about. So why should Tiger Woods divulge his entire life to help entertain people who want to hear a good story? This press conference was just another step in the process of getting his image back. There are going to be a lot of these steps over the next year. He’s going back to treatment, he’ll probably do an interview in primetime at some point, and he’ll play in his first tournament and that’s all anyone will talk about, but I think eventually, he’ll go back to playing golf and winning tournaments and we’ll all forget about this. Just ask Kobe Bryant.