We live in the age of information surplus. The internet has given us an archive of every piece of music, art, literature, or anything else you can think of. When social media was born we began inputting small parts of our lives onto the web creating an image of our digital selves. Sometimes that imagine does not create the best representation of ourselves, that can be in a good light or bad. All of this data being archived now creates a conundrum; can we ever exonerate someone who has been prosecuted in the court of public opinion? Look at Roseanne Barr for instance. Her show came back after a twelve-year hiatus to become the number one rated show on television as well as being a pivotal talking point during a tense political climate. All of that was gone within a few days when she tweeted that one of President Obama’s aids resembled a Planet of the Apes character. All of the success fizzled out in an instance for her as well as every person that worked on that show. She made a disgusting racist comment but how long till we forgive her or should we? What would she have to do to earn her integrity back. Should she ever be able to have her career back? This segues into the question of how will and how should people react to Tiger Wood’s recent success?
In 1995 Tiger was attending Stanford University and defended the U.S. Amateur championship he won the year prior. This same year he participates in his first PGA tournament, The Masters. Two years later he would return to Augusta to win the same tournament. He was the youngest player to win The Masters as well as being the first person of African American decent and Asian decent to win the tournament. He became a cultural icon and on the surface seemed to be a classy respectful dude in the public light. In a 9 year span he won 10 major titles and had one of the largest endorsement deals in history with Nike. In 2004 He marries Elin Nordegren and they would later have two children together. In November 2009 his world would crash after a car accident outside of his Florida home that stemmed from a verbal argument with his wife and drug/alcohol use. Everything unraveled once the details started to leak. Behind it all the public would quickly find out that Tiger’s entire persona was just a facade.
His whole world, image, and career would be damaged beyond repair. We would all find out that Tiger was a nymphomaniac, he literally was fucking anything that moved. He had an outlandish number of mistresses and not necessarily treating any of them in a respectful manner. Sadly Tiger is like many men who measure women’s worth by how “fuckable” they are. Just google “Tiger Woods Text messages” and you will see what I mean. He has been fodder for late night talk shows for the last ten years and just about everyone thought he was finished. Since that fateful incident in 2009 his game completely fell apart. His age started to show and all of the work he used to put in the weight room came back to bite him in the ass. Tiger has been thrusted back into the spotlight ten years later because he is now the 2019 Masters Champion. As an athlete Tiger redeemed himself by proving all of the naysayers wrong and getting back to where he belongs in the golf world, the top. This brings us back, Tiger has redeemed himself on the course but has he done enough for you to accept him and exonerate him in the court of public opinion?
Lily Bravos says “He was a role model and a father. I don’t think it’s too much to ask of greatly powerful and wealthy people to set a decent example”. Tiger’s level of infidelity was beyond disgusting and disrespectful. He risked his and his wife’s health with his promiscuity. Elin had no other choice than to divorce him. Can you blame her? The love of your life, the father of your children is running around town with strippers and prostitutes. Staff writer Julie Cappiello has a little bit different opinion “As a woman if Tiger Woods was able to show that he had redeemed himself in other ways than just winning the Masters. Maybe by advocating for women’s right issues. He can be redeemed even though he has committing infidelity which is the ultimate betrayal of Trust.” This is an interesting perspective because it is almost as if Tiger needs to win the public’s trust back as well. Lily is right in the fact that Tiger broke the most spiritual bond you can make with another human being but I agree with Julie that all human’s deserve a second chance if they are truly willing to put in the work. Humans have never been perfect but our ability to change and forgive is older than the bible.
In writing the article I have found most of the people I interviewed believe that it is going to take time even though the incident happened over a decade ago. If Tiger truly is back on top of his golf game, then we will have to get used seeing him again and often. Lindsey Rohr’s input was refreshing because she looked at Tiger the human when she told me “Interpersonally Tiger can be redeemed but at the public level it takes a lot more time and behavioral alignment to prove that you are now different”. In your personal life there will always be people that hate you for no reason, they don’t matter. In Tiger’s case watching him win that Masters showed me a lot about his soul. After thanking his opponent, field crew, caddy he passed backstage immediately greeted by his son, his mother, his daughter, his girlfriend, and his business team. The hug to his son was powerful because it mirrored when he greeted his father Earl Woods in 1997 and since Earl has passed on this moment was special. The hug with his mother and daughter moved me because at some point Tiger had to explain to both of them how bad of a person he had been. He probably had to think what if my daughter falls in love with someone like me? The strong bold hug he shared with his girlfriend Erica Herman screamed “I told you, I believed in you, and YOU did it.” He had to prove to her that he wasn’t that same old dog anymore for them to get this far. When all four of them walked up that grassy knoll to accept the green jacket I noticed that he was there with the three most important women in his life. I understand everything I just said is speculative but it seemed sincere. This shows that he had to take a long look in the mirror after that famous incident and realized he let the people closest to him down. As long as he knows he’s doing the right thing for his family then you really can’t ask for more. Whether he redeems his public image time with tell.
If you want to see the moment I just described click HERE
One comment
Alex
April 22, 2019 at 5:53 pm
I’m glad Tiger came back and proved all the critics wrong who said he’d never win again. To his long time fans all was forgiven when he won, however, infidelity and drug abuse is a common problem with sports athletes, and people in general, i think he needs to be an advocate for change before he is seen as a changed man.