By now everyone and their brother knows more than they probably intended to on the never-ending Tiger Woods saga. You simply can't escape it.
The latest push has been that we need to forgive him and give him his privacy. This makes my head hurt. First off, I haven't heard anyone demand that Elin and the kids forgive him. They have the right to be mad at him... and so do his fans. For years, he's trotted around the world collecting green jackets, trophies, and massive paychecks. He did all of this while pretending to be holier than holy so that we would feel more comfortable with him and buy the products he endorsed. He made money off of an image that was false. He looked like the family man and America and the rest of the world ate it up.
Now, I know you're going to say what he's going through is a private matter, and it is, but there are a different set of rules when you are a public figure. No one is creeping in his house late at night and stealing items and selling them on ebay. Everything is free information that is damning him. The one thing he, and his agent and marketing team will never understand, is the monster they have created. They made him a billion dollar icon. They put his face everywhere. They got us addicted to him. And now they are saying... well just keep being addicted to the products and the good things about him. Sorry. It doesn't work like that. We are America and the one thing we are addicted to is conflict. It is the center of entertainment. We don't watch TV shows where everyone likes each other. We like fighting and resolution and chaos and competition. That's why sports teams play each other. That's why they don't just hand Tiger the trophy every week. He has to go out and face competition and conflict and come away above the rest. He has to take the good with the bad.
One of the large problems with this country and a money driven society is that just like the banks, we have made him, "Too Big To Fail" and right now he's failing. He and his marketing team went above and beyond to make America place Tiger Woods on a pedestal and they succeeded. They have to live with this mess they've created. Yes companies are going to drop him. And they should. He's a liability to their profit. They can't whine and moan and say "but he's Tiger Woods." Now, he's just like everyone else. Tiger has always dominated the competition when he was playing with a lead. He doesn't fair as well when playing from behind. They have to face that.
When Tiger released his statement from the car accident, he said that Elin was heroic and the media was "irresponsible." He lied about Elin and as usual deflected the blame.
I'm not saying we can't forgive Tiger. I'm not saying he's an awful person. We need to look at this situation as a whole. Tiger created an image to sell products. That image turned out to be contradictory. The media's job is to inform the public. Tiger sold products. Media sells news. Tiger made news. Calls media irresponsible.
We aren't going to forgive, unless Tiger can forgive Tiger. He has to come to grips with what he's done and address it to those he asks for forgiveness.
The one question that still irks me is that... we can forgive and we can turn the other cheek and whatever saying you want to go by, but when it comes down to it, would Tiger Woods really care about asking for your forgiveness if he wasn't already trying to sell you a product?
