By Bill Collins, Principal
Where do you begin with the Tiger Woods mess? Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse for him, another piece of the story is chipped loose and the media engine roars into overdrive all over again. This baby ain’t over by a long shot!
Speaking of shots, an industry colleague of mine suggests that whoever is handling Tiger’s PR (or more to the point, not handling it), ought to be shot. The incident came to light on Friday and he didn’t make a mea culpa statement until Wednesday. By then he had been barbecued to a crisp and it looks like it’s going to get even worse with additional sordid details airing almost hourly.So how did Tiger (or Cheeta as the New York tabloids have dubbed him) get away with all of his extra-curricular affairs without the media picking up on him? Easy. The unwritten law in the sports writing world has long been that you either play nice with Tiger or you get shut off. Not having access to the most recognizable athlete in the world could be a problem if you are writer assigned to cover the golf beat. Tiger is represented by the most powerful sports-management firm in the universe, IMG, whose tentacles in the world of sports go deep and go everywhere. These guys are tough SOBs who play hardball and it was commonly understood that taking on Tiger would be a career-threatening move. And of course Tiger’s sponsors are standing behind him…IMG would cut them off at their knees otherwise.
(Tiger never let fellow golfer Fuzzy Zoeller off the hook when Fuzzy’s racial-oriented humor fell flat one year at the Masters and he was hung out to dry by Tiger who refused to throw him a lifeline of support, even to this day. Fuzzy ought to call Tiger and ask him how it feels.)
As a result, Tiger developed over the years an absolutely pristine image: the greatest golfer in the world, built like an Adonis, who always came up big in the crunch and off the course, a handsome, every-man kind of guy with a gorgeous wife and two beautiful kids. Who among us, until last Friday, didn’t hold up Tiger as a paragon of virtue and the person we would be if God ever bestowed on us that kind of talent and good looks? So with all of this as the backdrop, why would the gossip tabloids even bother to look in Tiger’s direction?
Well, another hero with clay feet. Jack Nicklaus’s records may be safe after all and it isn’t pathetic that the career of perhaps one of the greatest athletes of all time will be derailed not by poor putting or weak iron play but by an insatiable appetite for gold-digging bimbos? Oy vey, what a dope.
Where does Tiger and his career and his endorsements go once all of the details are out? This is one of the biggest PR cans of worms of all time and there’s no easy, tidy solution.
I imagine a trip to divorce court will be high on the list. If Mrs. Woods chooses to divorce the former Mr. Perfect, it’s safe to assume she is going to get a nice, tidy settlement and deservedly so. What more can he say at this point? He’s been publicly humiliated, his carefully cultivated image is in absolute ruins, he’s about to get one of the worst financial haircuts of all time in divorce court and it’ll be a long time before he can go anywhere without hearing about his indiscretions.
He’s going to have to grit his teeth and re-earn respect by virtue of his actions. Sure, he cannot apologize enough but in the long run, he will be judged by his actions.
