Every A-list actor or top tier athlete has a love-hate relationship with celebrity. Tiger Woods, on the other hand, has always detested it. His hunger for privacy amidst fame is well documented, and amazingly, has been largely successful in his 13 year career.
The reason he has been able to do this where so many other celebs have failed is due to a few factors, the biggest being that he almost never makes news off the golf course. When I was at Bay Hill in 2008, I asked a number of local fans what Tiger was like around Orlando, and the consensus was you might run into Tiger at the grocery store or at a restaurant, but he was by and large a boring but friendly public figure. He saved his drama and excitement for the back nine on Sunday.
The other giant factor in Tiger's off-course anonymity was his ability to control the media like no one else could. I always enjoyed watching the way he maneuvered around questions, answering only what he wanted, how he wanted. As a husband and father myself, it is hard to fault a man for wanting to protect his wife and children.
On top of this, few writers were ever willing to really dig for dirt. After all, the arrival of Tiger Woods boosted the profile of the PGA Tour and every player, writer and sponsor associated with it. In a sense, we were all indebted to him for our well-being and long term security. If he were to fall, many others would too.
Then came last weekend. A bizarre late-night car accident whose cobbled together facts included a 12-hour media blackout, broken glass, a 911 call, Tiger unconscious and bleeding from the mouth, his own wife wielding a golf club, Tiger "embarrassed," and a refusal to talk to police.
And yet the upshot of it all is the same -- please respect Tiger's privacy.
I'm not sure this will fly. Tiger doesn't need to air all his dirty laundry. Nor should he. His marital issues, fact or fiction, are not our business. But he does owe us something. He needs to convince us that he is not evading justice here, that the truth of whatever happened is not being buried or twisted with the help of high-priced lawyers.
Right now it feels that way.
Ultimately, if Tiger walks away from this with a careless driving charge and a fine, his lawyer will consider it a victory. But if we never know for certain what happened that night, it will remain very much a net loss for both Tiger and his fans, who have been led to believe that he is the kind of man who embraces challenges rather than run away from them.
4 comments:
hey WAIT a minute ! aren't you taking a chance on being evicted from SoCal and Hollywood by making "hey media people - shut up" statements ? :-)
Terrific post, Bob. I wish it could be turned into a vaccine and injected into every one of these professional "journalists".
Astute Bob. Woods has gone down a peg or two in the court of public opinion though and that's what's drives his off course earnings. You can't be the first billionaire athlete by just selling Nike hats.
Tiger owes me nothing in the way of explanation, but I'm afraid I'm of the minority stance. Tough balancing revenue producing adulation and an extreme need for privacy.
Much appreciate the reasoned perspective, Bob. Despite your well-documented support for, investment in, and admiration for Tiger, you share with us a very honest and fair point of view. Thank you, Greg O.
Bob, good analysis, but I don't think you are spot-on this time. It's wishful thinking to believe or even suggest that Tiger will come clean: he can't and won't.
Tiger's silent treatment approach is really the only one that makes sense in the long run. Anything he says will be twisted and used against him. Tiger knows that all too well from watching other athletes lose their aura of invincibility over stupid behavior and blabbing about it with microphones around.
While the golf media and industry are indebted to Tiger for making golf interesting again, the much larger tabloid media is not. To that audience, Tiger is just another overpaid celebrity athlete, and they want to see his image tarnished. Think schadenfreude, OJ-style.
No matter what Tiger does - even if he produces crystal-clear security video from his driveway from multiple camera angles proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that the incident went down exactly as described (and, more importantly, confirming that Elin used an interlocking grip when smashing the Escalade's windows) - the tabloid media won't let it go for as long as there is new information to report. The unwashed masses want to believe that Tiger is involved in some sort of thrilling international clandestine affair, and he is not the boring guy he portrays himself to be.
Tiger's well-compensated PR team is betting that the tabloid media will move on to the next scandal after another week of silence. Headlines of "Still No News from Tiger" won't sell ad space, and any Tiger sightings around Orlando will be fall-asleep boring. Elin can look forward to a very limited public appearance schedule for the next several months in a non-speaking role.
The golf media will give Tiger a pass, especially after his next win, for the reasons you stated. Further, if he wins the '10 Masters, we will never hear about this again from golf writers who want to remain on the beat. After all, any question in the media tent about "the incident" will abruptly end that press conference. That reporter will be violently relocated to cover the Siberian Senior Amateur Ladies Golf Tour for the rest of his career.
Conversely, if Tiger plays poorly his next few times out or appears to have lost his focus, he can expect this incident to hound him until he retires. Therefore, Tiger's future continues to depend on his ability to win important golf tournaments and do his talking with his clubs… which is nothing new. Tiger has always responded well to pressure, and that is the challenge you mentioned in your last paragraph.
Post a Comment