Crashing and Burning...

Unless you've been living under a rock on the planet MARS, you are reasonably familiar with the ongoing Tiger Woods saga in his domestic life. Despite the fact that there is no question that Eldrick is the most accomplished golfer that's ever lived, I have never been able to like, root for, or admire him. I realize that is the minority opinion up until recently, but there has always been something suspicious about him. Unable to quite put a finger on what it was, if nothing else he has truly been the Goliath Of Golf, and as the late great Wilt Chamberlain once said, "Nobody loves Goliath".

Now that the news has broken that he is far from monogamous in his marital life, there is an air of "A-ha!" among those who have always doubted him. That a high powered, top of his game athlete would stray from his wife multiple times with multiple women isn't what generates this reaction. Behavior such as this has been practiced for eons from other athletes without nearly the amount of gossipy fanfare. When it comes to Tiger however, this situation is much different for the following reasons.

Tiger (with some help from his late father and a famous shoe company) carefully cultivated an image of a wholesome, family man with an idyllic life, that is worthy of being a role model for both kids and adults. Remember the commercials that had little kids screaming, "I AM TIGER WOODS!"? I couldn't help remember the "Be Like Mike" Michael Jordan ads from a decade earlier. Anytime, a person allows themselves to be painted in that bulletproof image, that person had better be the real-deal, genuine article. If that person turns out to be flawed as Tiger and Jordan have, the dam of public admiration/trust buckles, and the waters of anger, disappointment, and shame come cascading down and destroy everything, fairly or unfairly.

Tiger will probably recover from this to some degree, get back on tour and win many more majors, but he'll never been seen the same way again on a personal level. He'll never be idolized, or worshipped by nearly the same amount of people as before, nor should he be, because at the end of the day we all reap what we sow. The only tragedy in this lie with his two children at home. They are the ones that will have to deal with the most fallout for something they have nothing to do with. Hopefully they will learn to trust their dad again, and hopefully people will realize that being the best at something, is not the same thing as being a great person.