Tiger's Statement, Trimmed

Regular readers of this blog might be shocked to learn that I worship at the temple of Chili Palmer, the great 20th century philosopher who once said to Leo Devoe the dry cleaner, "Never say anything unless you have to."

I share this in light of Tiger's statement today, which, contrary to Chili's belief, was necessary in some form. But after reading much of the media and fan reaction to the statement (negative), I offer you this edited version with a follow up question.

I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect. I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family. Those feelings should be shared by us alone.

Although I am a well-known person and have made my career as a professional athlete, I have been dismayed to realize the full extent of what tabloid scrutiny really means. For the last week, my family and I have been hounded to expose intimate details of our personal lives. The stories in particular that physical violence played any role in the car accident were utterly false and malicious. Elin has always done more to support our family and shown more grace than anyone could possibly expect.

I will strive to be a better person and the husband and father that my family deserves. For all of those who have supported me over the years, I offer my profound apology.

Might this, minus the lecture about privacy, have been better received?

Comments

[thusgone]

in a word: yes.

[styled]

Geoff,

The way i always heard it was: "Never write it if you can say it. Never say it if you can nod."

Also, who's working on the timeline...you know, the one that juxtaposes the birth of his kids with the 31-month liaison and majors/tournaments won and lost? It's sort of grotesque to consider, but isn't that what's next?

[MRP]

Styled...

UGH!!! You are so right. I don't even want to figure out that time line, especially taking into consideration how old his kids are, when they were born, was his wife pregnant at the time, etc.

I simply can not comprehend someone's mentality who does these types of things.

Ugh!

[Shankapotamus]

So, Geoff...someone has to take the place of Steinberg on Team Tiger. Are you angling for a new job, you sly dog?

[tlavin]

Sure it would have been better. The one that was issued shows some obvious signs of Tiger's involvement; namely the victimization. He definitely feels like he's been screwed over in some way. He was improperly judged by those who thought he might have been loaded. He was improperly judged by those who thought there was a domestic argument that precipitated the crash. His wife was improperly branded a husband basher. People were too intrusive on the man who intrudes in everybody's living room via the television, the newspaper and the many magazine ads.

Reminds me of the Warren Zevon song, "Poor Poor Pitiful Me".

Feel sorry for Tiger? Not really. Not that I condemn him for one of the most common transgressions of men, but I don't feel sorry for a guy who does whatever he wants to do and then whines when he is reminded that there are rules.

[Seitz]

Tiger should tell everyone why he was in the car at 2:30 in the morning and what caused the accident. It would take some heat off the whole multiple affairs thing.

[Me]

Wouldn't have changed it one bit for me. In fact, I didn't even pay attention to that part. To me, having listened to the voicemail tape, Tiger didn't give two sh!ts about what he was doing - that's why he was trying to cover it up. Had he not been caught, he still would've been out there knockin' boots. For supposedly the most mentally strong athlete in today's time, he sure had a giant brain fart on this one.

[Fo Shiz]

Me:

You nailed it.

[RM]

all these kind of statements are BS, so it really doesn't matter to me what is or isn't in there.

[jeff]

love any tie-in to Elmore Leonard. well done Geoff

[dbh]

Watching 3 newscasts at dinner tonight, they all conveyed the same reductive message, 'Tiger says he's sorry and wants to make it up to his wife and family.'
So, nah, I don't think the wording matters much.

[JPH]

I believe that Tiger himself wrote the statement. I think he took matters into his own hands. Nobody who wrote or edited such an odd press release deserves to be paid for it. I am sure Team Tiger would have put something a bit more cohesive together.

[bsoudi]

With Me on this one. With that flippant voice mail, it doesn't matter what the statement says.

I find his whining about privacy ridiculous. He relinquished his "I'm just a golfer trying to do my job" card when he signed on with all his sponsors. THEN he became a public property. Your notoriety is good enough to earn you $100 mil per year, it's good enough for us to want to know more about you.

[F. X. Flinn]

bsoudi, Tiger earns $100 million because he creates billions of impressions which are sold for pennies and become hundreds of thousands of marginal purchases that probably total out to a billion in sales. What's payment are you making to want to nose around Tiger's life? Stop watching him, the ratings will go down, I'm sure.

[thusgone]

fx: and those billions of impressions have now turned out to be false. now the process works the other way, many of these billions of impressions are expressing their new impressions about tiger's antics. and they are entitled to do that. if you don't want to hear about others' impressions about tiger's life, stop reading these comments.

[E.P. Richardson]

The statement would have been better as you wrote it, Geoff, or better still without any reference to tabloid journalism, especially when we now know that the tabloids have been essentially correct all along. I think, though, that the motivation is that he's pissed off for being caught is wrong, or at least not the only thing behind those words. I think he probably feels quite guilty and bad for Elin, and while he accepts and can take the media scrutiny, he knows his wife and children probably can't. He's firing a warning salvo, so to speak. At least that's what I'd like to believe. To buy the idea that he's just going through the motions in his apology and is upset at being caught rather than remorseful is to make him out to be a real monster. I wouldn't want to think that about any human being.

[bsoudi]

FX:

People might not be very interested in Tiger if he were "just a golfer." But chose to use his notoriety from golf to make more money outside of golf as a celebrity pitchman. So he can't complain about the crap that comes with being a celebrity.

There are a LOT of celebrities and successful sports people that decline the endorsements (or only do them overseas), just act/play, and the media leaves them alone. But having your own Nike brand, Tag Heuer, EASports, Gatorade, Buick, Upper Deck, whatever laser eye center -- you're drawing more attention to yourself. You'll get the attention -- it will make you big bucks AND give you BIG headaches.

I'm in Chicago and we've seen this all before with Michael Jordan. He and Pippen were 1 & 2 here for a long time. Jordan was Mr endorsement. Pippen was not. Media hunted Jordan. Did not Pippen.