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It sounds that it's the public's fault, for elevating him. By getting on all billboards and representing huge corporations, he started playing a bigger game, - and lifted himself to the level of those people Highcotton mentioned, - of whom ethical behavior is expected.
Had he stuck to just being an athlete (and he could have had a comfortable life with golf's money) - I don't think his "transgressions" would have been as big of a deal.
I don't know if the public is really to blame. They were just reacting to what was presented to them. From the very beginning, Earl Woods said Tiger was going to transcend golf, change the world, and the world would be a better place because of him... blah, blah. The marketing propaganda started with Tiger Woods himself.
As a fan of Tiger Woods for many, many years, I am deeply disappointed in his "transgressions." I had that MF on my wall in college... "the eyes have it" poster... believing in the propaganda. He seemed educated, honest, and driven. I admired him for not allowing himself to be sucked into the BS of stardom and wealth. Boy, was I ever wrong about him...
I admit, fully, that people like me probably helped Tiger become what he was... famous, untouchable, rich, admired... all because people like me believed the lies. He's not the only one that is a liar though. Many public figures are liars. We're just too dumb to figure it out until it's too late.
I guess it just goes to show us... don't believe the media, or the way any star presents themselves because we never really know for sure. I regret having ever admired a liar, a cheater, and ultimately... a whor*. That's what Tiger is... a whor*. Nothing can change that. How can anyone defend him, is beyond me.
TMZ - the news machine now wants more sports dirty laundry.
The celebrity and political media machine TMZ has announced they will be launching a sports version of their brand. Spokespeople at TMZ said that they were “going to launch this service before the Tiger Woods story hit. However that ramping up of TMZ Sports has accelerated with the website looking for top name writers and bloggers.
For years athletes have made the gossip pages since the days of Babe Ruth but for the most part they have not been hounded like actors, actresses or politicians. But now the Woods incident has become the game changer as it seems that sports fans have an appetite for gossip.
Those many "gentleman's clubs" that have set up VIP rooms for top name sports stars and their friends will be open season for anyone with a cell phone video camera.
Now with TMZ realizing that athletes can be fair game there will be more about Tom Brady, Alex Rodriguez and extensive probing into the lives of big name NBA, NHL, NFL, Major League Baseball, tennis and golfers will all be amped up.
I can see a lot of fist fights between athletes and the paparazzi following them around...........
They better not mess with Derek Jeter. I love him.
They better not mess with Derek Jeter. I love him.
Why would they. He's the only one that actually has done it the right way. Not married, gets to lay with whomever he wants, doesn't say anything stupid, respected by his peers and fans, and wins championships. You can't have a scandal if there is nothing to start with.
It is society's fault that we put these people on a pedestal, as if their fame and money somehow makes them immune to being a human and all the faults that come with that. It's the media's fault for continuing to prop up these people when they do something, calling them heroes and whatnot. And then when one screws up, like most of them do, it's so shocking. People are so hurt. How could this be?
He's a professional golfer, one who happens to be pretty good. He's going to get past this, like they all do (remember kobe bryant? How did that work out?), he going to win tournaments again, sponsors are going to come back because money talks, and the true fans will watch and embrace him again. It's a absolute certainty.
I was doing a profile for Golf Digest on Woods, then a 14-year-old prodigy.
Although his wide smile and sheer joy in playing kept me from seeing it right away, he was a kid with a burden. For one, he was clearly the only source of his parents' happiness in an otherwise uneasy marriage. Both Earl, who had been distant from his first wife and their three children, and Tida, who grew up a lonely child of divorce, gave their all for Tiger, but it was the only place their lives intersected. By the time Tiger began playing the tour, his parents were living in separate houses.
Woods became golf's Atlas, carrying everything -- the PGA Tour, his near-flawless image as a role model, his foundation, his family; heck, the game itself -- on his shoulders, all on top of the unceasing pressure to perform.
But as much as he sought the glory, he resented the obligations that came with it, even if they made him incredibly rich. I remember Earl telling me that once he had tried to commiserate with his overwrought son by saying, "I understand how you feel."
But, Earl recalled, "Tiger turned on me and said, 'No, you don't. You have no idea how I feel.' And I realized that I had underestimated."
As Tiger's life in his 30s became more tangled, he turned more inward. His inner circle got smaller and tighter, and those who overstepped or didn't fit in were jettisoned. The best advice for those who are around Woods remains, "Don't get too close."
Woods was brought up with the idea that a player, especially one with aspirations for greatness, is entitled to be selfish. He never had a job or even many chores, so he could devote himself to schoolwork, golf and occasional diversions. "To live a sane life, I have to be ruthless sometimes," he told me in 2000. "Put up a wall, be cold, say no. If I didn't, I would never have my own time and space, which is vital to me to achieve what I want in life."
Last year was probably the most uncomfortable I've ever seen Woods. Coming off eight months of intense rehab for his left knee that didn't produce full healing, he was noticeably irritable. The fact that a witness in the police report after Tiger's accident said that Woods had been prescribed Vicodin, a strong prescription painkiller, gives pause. And it's not unreasonable to assume that his marriage was unhappy for quite some time.
Whatever the reasons, at times he was uncharacteristically rude. One of the telling images of the year came after he bounced his driver into the crowd in Australia. After fans retrieved the club, Woods took it without so much as a glance, let alone an apology.
Despite the advice of those who say Woods must deliver an outpouring from Oprah's couch, I believe he'll keep the findings of his exploration private. When he comes back to competition, he will say little. Like always, he'll depend on his clubs to provide eloquence.
Woods' old mystique -- that of the chilly Chosen One immune to human weakness -- is gone. It might well be that his former domination or even his competitive desire goes with it. Still, he has a chance to attain something more human. When he re-emerges, Woods will have truly suffered. Not knee-injury suffering, not even loss-of-father suffering. Rather the kind of suffering that heroes who have ruined their charmed lives confront at the climax of Shakespearean tragedy.
There's an amazing scene in "The Wire" where a rent-a-cop working at a quickie mart tags Marlo, a dead-eyed young drug kingpin, for shoplifting. The cop can't understand why Marlo doesn't just behave, doesn't just do what he's supposed to. Marlo stares at him calmly, then delivers the devastating reply.
"You want it to be one way. But it's the other way."
That's it, man. That's the Tiger Woods scandal in twelve words.
Oh, it was a hell of a sales pitch. It was secular religion. Tiger transcended sport, transcended race, transcended everything that traditionally divides America. He's not just a guy who hits a little white ball with a stick; he represents excellence, domination, triumph on every level. That's something that everyone can relate to, and that's why this scandal hit so hard and struck so deep; there's no other figure in American culture who had the same kind of near-universal acclaim and cross-cultural appeal.
The big question, then: is it fair that Tiger Woods had to shoulder this burden for all of us? Of course not. No way. No one could possibly be expected to handle that load, not even Tiger. Nobody could hold out against the temptations and the pressures of fame forever, and in retrospect, it was ridiculous for us to even think that he could.
Here's a telling anecdote, also from this year's Tour Championship. As the sun was going down on Saturday afternoon, with the day's golf long done and the postround interviews complete, I was standing in the media parking lot waiting to catch a shuttle. There was a small commotion over near the players' courtesy cars, and I watched as Woods popped out from the back of the media tent, shook a couple hands, and got into his car and drove off alone. One of the ten most recognizable people on the planet, and he goes off by himself, no security, no handlers, nobody. It was a little odd then, but it makes absolute perfect sense now.
For however long he was in the car, driving to his hotel or wherever, he wasn't TIGER WOODS, SAVIOR OF AMERICA. He was just another dude in traffic. My first instinct was that his handlers were insane for letting him go like that, but now it's obvious - times like that were the only moments he had completely to himself, where he didn't have to shoulder an entire country's hopes and dreams.
Why do we -- and by "we," I mean readers, not the media -- keep digging into this story? Why do we click on article after article about the inner workings of the family, about whether divorce is imminent, about the mistresses that Tiger allegedly stacked faster than birdies at Augusta? I have an idea.
It's not because we're voyeurs. It's not because we're jealous. It's not because of schadenfreude, that pitch-perfect German word meaning "taking pleasure in others' pain." All of those may be elements, yes, but I think there's a greater drive at work here.
I think that we dig because we want to find the bottom of this mess. We invested so much of ourselves in the idea of Tiger -- spiritually, financially, emotionally, athletically -- that when the man falls short, we need to know the whole truth. We want it all out there, no more surprises, no more disappointments.
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