Tiger Woods doesn't owe us a thing. Not an apology. Not an explanation. Not contrition. Nothing. Unless a public figure has broken the law, there is only one legitimate answer to the illegitimate probing of private lives: "It's none of your business." That said, purely on its own terms, Tiger's apology was, pardon the expression, par for the course. You can just picture his handlers working on the statement and going down a checklist. Accept blame: check. Look right into camera: check. Touch hand to chest: check. Watery eyes: check. Defend wife: check. Accuse the media: check. Hug mother: check. Go back to rehab: check. It was déjà vu all over again. Another public figure navigating the now-requisite Stations of the PR Cross.
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I also think it is very appropriate for public scrutiny as he is not just Tiger Wood, the individual or even the champion golfer. Tiger Woods is a cultural icon, as much so as fast food or cell phones. He needs to respond to the compromise of our cultural understanding of him.
When you are put on a pedestal and paid millions of dollars for doing what you love to do, you are held to a higher standard. As you should be! There are children who look up to you as their hero and example.
And what kind of example are you setting by such behavior?
Had Tiger come out immediately after accident he might have curbed some of this talk. But he didn t and now it has grown to enormous proportion!
Tiger you need to step up, be a man and get your schitt together or fade from the Public eye!
He will get over this, but he has to get back to some of the tenets of his Buddhist faith, and learn how to control desire and not let desire control him, through meditation, prayer, and strict self-discipline. He must learn how to fulfill hhis sexual desires within his marriage. He may need to practice tantric sexuality or some form of sacred sexuality within his marriage. A sexless marriage is NOT THE WAY to cure this. That will only cause a build up of sexual frustration and repression, and he may end up doing worse and committing even more infidelity than before.
Well said ... doing the contrition thing is like chumming the water for the sharks. Every word is going to be gone over, every expression and what can't be gleaned will be made up to keep the pain going.
This should be a learning moment for Tiger ... figure out who really came after you on this one then stay as far away from them as possible.
His agents at IMG are earning their money by having Tiger do the safe thing. By next golf season, it will all be forgotten. I do feel sorry for the humiliation his wife suffered through this.
However, she must have known him well enough to see some of his potential for the decadent,( to be delicate about it ) , and computed the risk / reward ratio.
I feel pretty sure that it wasn't that pure kind of love — like she would have married him even if she met him while he was parking cars at Marriott.
"I thought the rules didn't apply to me."
That, in my experience, isn't the admission of an addict. My ex is an alcoholic and that's not the type of thing he ever said about his drinking when confronted. It was always "I need it to help me relax" or "I can't help it, I just can't stop." The attempts at stopping never worked, but even when talking to the counselor the comments were nothing like that. Not even remotely. They were always a reflection of an impulse beyond his control.
A lack of control over the impulse is not at all what those words mean. Those are the words of an ego maniac or a narcissist. Someone who thinks they are above all the standard rules of society is not an addict, they are someone who thinks they are far superior to everyone else. Either all of this had truly gone to his head or he has always been this way. One can be resolved, the other can never truly be changed only modified.
I disagree on one point, I feel it is more than just a healthy appetite and temptation. I suspect he felt entitled and he took advantage of the temptation around him. That, IMO, is just ego, money and a healthy dose of "the rules don't apply to me."