Tiger Declawed?

The lead story on the news last night was about the sex life of a golfer. How ridiculous is that? There is so much going on in the world, and the country is bleeding from numerous wounds yet the main stream media kicks off the nightly news with Tiger Woods’ apology for screwing around. What does that say about “serious” journalism? Could you see David Brinkley doing a story about Arnold Palmer’s sex life? I don’t think so...

Actually I have always felt that Tiger was treated unfairly throughout the whole ordeal. Yes he was wrong for cheating on his wife but I felt that the public and media over reacted. It is not like this is the first time that an athlete fooled around. In fact for most athletes having an active sex life is almost a requirement. Think over the years of how many famous basketball, baseball, football and hockey players were known for their randy sex life. Could you imagine anyone telling Joe Namath or Wilt Chamberlain that they need help for their sex addiction? Hell no. Or better yet, what about Mick Jagger or any other rock star who is surrounded by groupies the minute they get off of the stage? It is ludicrous to even image their being labeled as sex addicts and in need of therapy! Instead the men admire them and the women want to be one of their partners.

The same day that Tiger issued his apology there was an article about the sex lives of the Olympic athletes. For the past few Olympics one of the freebies found in the Olympic village for the athletes are free condoms. In 2000 Sydney supplied the village with 70,000 condoms and still had to bring in 20,000 more after they ran out! I love the story about Beijing which not only stocked up on 100,000 condoms for the athletes but the condoms also had the Olympic motto of faster, higher stronger! This year Vancouver is also providing 100,000 condoms for its athletes but sans the motto. As the article by Today show journalist Mike Celizic, from which I found all of this information, further details, those 100,000 condoms works out to be 14 condoms for each of the athletes, coaches, trainers and others housed in the Olympic Village. I bet no one would even think of demanding apologies or requiring sex therapy for these athletes!

Yet I can understand the fascination in Tiger’s Jeckle and Hyde behavior. Unlike others, I never saw him as a family man. Instead, I always thought of Tiger as being aloof, arrogant even, as if his enormous talent put him on a different level than everyone else. And when I watched him play golf and see him hit these spectacular shots, he almost seems inhuman. Then there was this new personal side of a passionate man having adulterous sex and even semi relationships with more than a dozen beautiful women. Wow. It almost sounds like every man’s fantasy – to be a champion athlete and to then have your pick of beautiful women almost, as their reward for a great round of golf. What man wouldn’t want to trade places with Tiger for a day, the old Tiger, that is.

Cheating on his wife was wrong, but only to his wife, it really wasn’t anyone else’s business and I don’t think he deserved this punishment. Some of the people who heard his apology said it was insincere and “too little, too late”. While others said he appeared broken and not the same man he was a year ago. I tend to agree with journalist Carlos Monarrez who said “It was hard to imagine this guy ever pumped a fist, stared down a putt or uttered a curse word in frustration. Those are the images of Woods that have defined him and endeared him to fans. Now, who knows?”

All athletes, be it golfers or Olympic champions need certain qualities of arrogance, defiance, competitiveness that makes him work and struggle to be the best. He has to have this mindset that believes that he is a champion. Call it the Alpha male syndrom or wanting to dominate and lead the pack. And throughout history the reward for these Alpha males who have beaten their foes, be it on a battlefield or a golf course or a ski jump, has always been a beautiful woman. Just as the women are having their own, although less visible, contest for the right to be with a winner.

So I wonder, what will this “therapy” and his sincere (or not), self belittling apology do to Tiger the golfer? Will this declaw him? Will he lose some of his competence? Will he begin to doubt and question himself? And in the long run who has won from this spectacle? Not his sponsors. Definitely not the PGA. Not even his wife. I wonder if she will even like the new Tiger 2.0 version? For if she does take him back, she married an Alpha male champion, not the new hesitant, demeaning, albeit supposedly faithful husband.

Of course there is always the possibility that he really isn’t changing all that much. I am almost waiting for an outburst, the kind he is known for on the golf course. The equivilant of throwing his golf club while cursing a blue streak. Something other than that boring and weak apology. I would have loved it if he had simply told the media and others to go to hell; that he is the greatest golfer ever. That is all that matters and that his personal life is just that, personal. He did try to tell everyone to leave his family alone but he sounded wimpy. He needs to get angry. To pump his fist in the air while psyching himself up to tell them all to go to hell. That would sound truer than his self deprecating apology. Nonetheless, regardless of the outcome, it still doesn’t belong among the top stories of the day.