Thursday, February 18, 2010

Tomorrow Mr. Woods Speaks -- Reports are More a Scared Kitten than a Tiger


For the first time since last Thanksgiving when a late night auto accident just outside his house soon led to revelations of vociferous appetite for sex with a parade of assorted mistresses, escorts, and bimbos coming out of darkness to absolutely obliterate his squeaky clean carefully crafted image, Tiger Woods will appear before an audience to begin reestablishing his career.

Given how the event is being staged, we hesitate to say Tiger Woods is going public. The expose is far too scripted and private and something about the way the whole event is being presented makes Woods’ attempting to come to terms with his difficulties seem still so out of touch.

Tiger Woods will appear before a group of friends and associates at the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse in Ponde Vedra Beach, Florida to offer some kind of statement or apology regarding his behavior. The people in attendance will be a carefully selected group of hand picked supporters. The event will be covered by one single camera. Meanwhile approximately a mile a way, a crowd of legitimate media will be gathered in a hotel ballroom to watch the spectacle. There will be no interaction, no question and answer, just Mr. Woods reading a prepared statement for the world to see.

True to form, in attempting to rebuild his career, once again Woods is working with his handlers to attempt to create a carefully crafted, perfectly packaged image…in essence re-launching the Tiger Woods brand.

How can we not predict that no matter how perfectly written his statement is, and surely it will be carefully written with all the right words and phrases that this endeavor will surely leave the public unfulfilled with just as many questions as ever? What is needed so badly is a little bit of authenticity and pure emotion some opportunity to measure the man and his sincerity to make amends for what he has done wrong. We’d darned well not hear any conditional or qualifying catch phrases we hear all too often in public apologies, the sleazy old, “If I have offended anyone….”

The bottom line is we don’t know Tiger Woods. We probably never did, and tomorrow won’t take us the slightest step to knowing him any better at all. His contributions to the sport of professional golf have been tremendous. Few athletes have dominated his sport the way he has. No one can deny his breaking the color barrier in such an elitist white sport was a long overdue accomplishment which he served so well.

As time went by, Tiger Wood became less a person and more a brand name as he was selling everything from Buicks to investments to Gatorade to Nike. His selling power was supported by an All-American squeaky clean image that he will never be able to convince us is real again.

Tiger Woods can only redefine himself by how he plays golf. If he plays at the highest championship level, all this will calm down. Some will remain forever skeptical of him, for most, his exploits will most likely be put aside. If he struggles on the links, the doomsayers will be proclaiming his misadventures have done him in. He’s washed up. It’s over.

We’ll see what comes tomorrow, but the prequel is making us think the only folks who will gain anything from tomorrow’s activities will be talk show hosts and gossip reporters. That’s a crime.

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