Tiger Tiger Tiger

As College Basketball season is heating up, Tiger Woods' loins are attempting to cool down. Today Tiger came out from hiding and issued a public statement. You can read the text here or watch the video here:




Now I'm sure the perception of the words he said will depend upon whether you are a male or female. But really anyone who doesn't think he was sincere or is still living a lie or whatever really isn't thinking about the whole situation. The simple fact that Tiger made a statement offering an apology shows exactly the path he wants to go forward on. If he didn't want to be married, if he wanted to continue hooking up with porn stars and whoever else, then he could have. Elin, his wife, was all but gone, ready to sign the divorce papers. Money is certainly not a concern either. So just his act of doing what he did today should shut everyone up. I would insert the video of Stephen A. Smith ripping Tiger's speech and calling it "weak" and "pathetic" but then I remembered that Stephen A Smith is the biggest bigot alive and himself represents the epitome of the word "failure" (exactly what is he calling his job now? writer? no.. TV show host? no...blogger? YES! wait I blog too...hmm). If Tiger didn't mean what he said, then he wouldn't have said it. Because he has no reason to lie.

There were three large questions leading into the statement:
1) Why is he doing it Friday? Is it to screw over Accenture, his first sponsor to drop him, who was hosting a golf tournament that day?
2) Why is he controlling it so much and not letting the free insane media ask questions?
3) Will he really mean what he says?

He did not avoid these three questions and instead addressed them head on. He gave the speech on Friday because that is the day that fit into his rehab schedule. He is headed back to rehab immediately. He controlled the media the way he did because he was not ready for open questions and he knew the media would ask too personal of questions that he wants to remain private. Now if he really meant what he said - he was speaking about Elin when he said this but I think it can be applied to all of us - He said that his words are just words and the only way we will be able to judge if he is really sorry is by his actions down the road.He was not asking for forgiveness from us now, he was asking us to start the process of thinking about looking up to him again.

Now for those who are bashing him over reading off a script. What did you expect? You think he's gonna come out there and ad-lib his apology? Get real. I'm sure he had help writing his words but like I said, he wouldn't have said anything he didn't want to say because he had no reason to lie.

Tiger's speech used the word "golf" only twice. I think it's pretty clear that golf is not at the forefront of his mind right now. He's been away from the game for 3 months now. A lot of people would have gone to rehab for a month, taken another month off, declared themselves ready to return, and then done so. Tiger said he does not know when he will be back to the game and that it might not be this year. Really all I care about is when he will be coming back. It's highly doubtful that I will watch a non-major tournament without Tiger, and I'll watch much less of a Major without him also.

Like I said, I'm sure your reaction to his statement depends on whether you are male or female. Like Tiger said, no one will be able to trust him until he proves with his actions that he is trying to change. For now, in my opinion, it seems like he has taken a good first step.

Greg