I know that this is a time when everyone is dumping on Tiger Woods for his, as he put it, “transgressions” but I for one would like to thank him. No, not for all the great golf he’s given us through the years, or all the money that he has generated for the sport, or even for all the great golf courses that he’s designed. I want to thank him for finally knocking Sarah Palin off of the front page.
Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised. It makes sense when you think about it. What is a former vice-presidential candidate, spoken of as a possible presidential contender for 2012, possible most powerful person in the world, compared with the world’s greatest golfer who turned out to be a serial cheater?
Before that fateful Thanksgiving night car crash, we were treated, or should I say force fed, a daily dose of Sarah Palin vignettes. We received minute by minute accounts of her book tour for “Going Rogue”, her interviews, even the ones from last year’s campaign were continously trodded out. And we can’t forget Levi Johnston who has probably appeared on every tabloid news outlet in the country. I wonder sometimes if there were any people like me out there who wondered what the fascination was with this middle-aged mother of five who had, what I can only politely describe as, a questionable IQ.
Now back to Tiger Woods. As if by some cosmic shift in the universe, all eyes turned to Florida. The smashed Cadillac Escalade became a metaphor for the smashed image of Tiger Woods. Tiger was the image of perfection, both on and off the course; the perfect golfer, calm, cool, collected with nerves of steel; the perfect family man, devoted to his stunning wife and adorable children with never a hint of scandal. Overnight, all of the tabloids and most of the main stream media went on bimbo watch, as the number of “mistresses” began to climb; now up to 14 as I write this. It seemed that Tiger Woods had extra marital affairs like most of us go for takeout. Actually, I think it was reported that he did have some affairs while going for take out. The advertisers, in typical corporate fashion, put out initial statements of support in an effort to influence public opinion, but had to “reevaluate” their relationship with Tiger when woman after woman came out with more lurid details of Tiger’s escapades.
What! the golden boy is a selfish narcissist who thinks only of himself? My question is, when did you get your first clue? From the very start of his career Tiger Woods has never made a pretense of who and what he was all about, himself. He made a point of staying away from anything even remotely controversial and refused to take any stands in the interest of justice. He went to play at Augusta even though they discriminated against blacks and women, and turned a blind eye to Nike’s questionable labor practices. Nike, incidently, is the one advertiser who continues to voice it’s unwavering support. He cut the African-American community off at the knees, denying them any pride in his accomplishments, by proclaiming early in his career that he was not black.
I feel that the advertisers are now being hypocritical proclaiming that Tiger Woods is not the best representative for them. He is the perfect representative. He is all about the bottom line and he has done everything that they required of him, which is win. Tiger is not the kind of man that touches your heart but only your wallet. Decades from now, the world will continue to honor men like Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith and John Carlos. These were men who stood up for things they believed in at a great cost both personal and professional. They will continue to live on in our hearts where Tiger Woods will exist only on paper. But, for being only out for himself and no one else, Tiger Woods is still the champ.
Tags: advertisers, african, ali, american, black, carlos. levi, community, course, golf, john, johnston, muhammad, nike, palin, representative, sarah, scandal, smith, tabloids, thank, tiger, tommie, transgressions, woods
