There's a portrait out there, which never has run on TMZ or in the seamier Internet crannies, of Tiger Woods and his family in happy times. It's one of the saddest, most pitiful photos you'll ever see. His wife, Elin, is smiling ear to ear, a picture of beauty and bliss and perfect teeth. Their daughter, Sam, is flashing a cute smile as she is smooched by one of the family dogs. And the man of the house? He's laughing with his eyes closed as he's licked in the face by another dog -- please, no wisecracks -- while his arm cradles then-newborn son Charlie, who is sleeping.
Makes you either want to scream or cry, knowing something so wonderful has shattered like nothing we've witnessed in sports or popular culture.
The issue now isn't when Woods will break Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major championship victories. It's when he'll return to competitive golf and what kind of condition his game -- and pummeled psyche -- will be in when he emerges from his self-imposed break. In roughly the time it takes to slice a tee shot into the weeds, he plummeted from the highest plateaus of admiration and awe to the lowest depths of ridicule and disdain. He's now a laughingstock, a pariah, a corporate red flag and the antithesis of the role model we thought he was for a dozen years. Simply, a public figure of his magnitude can't portray himself in an impeccable, squeaky-clean way for so long, only to plunge into sordid, sleazy affairs with women so pathetically beneath his stature. The result has been a relentless firestorm of widespread backlash, all over the world, and even a man who has demonstrated enormous emotional strength on the course -- winning the 2008 U.S. Open on one leg, you remember -- will have difficulty resuming life as Tiger Woods.
In fact, I suspect his pride and ego -- so integral in fueling the swagger, attitude and mental toughness to rule a difficult game for so long -- will take such a beating that he returns not unlike the TV character to whom he was compared as a geeky college kid: Steve Urkel. Tiger as Urkel eventually will manage to win five major titles and pass Nicklaus, simply because his skills are too special. But the chase will take much longer than originally thought, into his 40s, and it will be accompanied by a lot of people who don't like him and don't want him passing Nicklaus, the ultimate family man. As far as ever resuming life as the great Tiger Woods, the global legend and most revered athlete on the planet, those days are long gone.
"It may not be possible," he wrote in his latest statement, "to repair the damage I've done."
That much he has right. It isn't possible.
He has been ripped, trashed and lampooned in all sectors of life. He has been dumped by Accenture, which on Sunday ended a six-year relationship with Woods that included a "High Performance" campaign -- please, no wisecracks -- and said in a statement, "(G)iven the circumstances of the last two weeks, after careful consideration and analysis, the company has determined that he is no longer the right representative for its advertising." He is being phased out by Gillette, yet another company rethinking the wisdom of having Woods as a spokesman. His commercials have been removed from all TV networks and channels during the holiday season. He has been excoriated by PGA Tour pro Jesper Parnevik, who introduced Woods to Elin earlier this decade and said Sunday on ESPN, "I vouched for the guy. I told her this is the guy that I think is everything you want. He's true. He's honest. He has great values. He has everything you would want in a guy. And uhh, I was wrong." He has become as big a cyber-freak show as Michael Jackson. He has been shunned by children, such as the band at a Wisconsin middle school that hoped to raise $1,600 from an auction of a Woods autograph picture -- and realized it would have to accept only $300 after the scandal. And, maybe most startlingly, he has made longtime problem child John Daly look stable and mature by comparison.
"I've tried to get hold of Tiger and his manager, but he just didn't want to talk to anybody. I feel like if there's anybody in this world -- after what I've gone through, the ups and downs -- I might give him some advice," said Daly, he of the four broken marriages, alcohol problems and PGA Tour suspension. "You don't stay married for the kids, you don't stay married for the money. You stay married because you love each other. I pray and hope they both get through it and if they ever need anything from me, both of them, I'll be happy to talk to them because I love them both.
"You can't imagine what he's going through, but he's definitely screwed up and I wish his statement had been a lot earlier. I'm in shock over it all, I think a lot of our players are in shock. I'm not happy with the way some of our players have responded. I think that's their way of getting back, because they know they can't beat him at golf. If I was him, I'd go to Oprah [Winfrey]. I would get on her show, tell the truth, and it doesn't matter what the media say any more, because it's all out in the open. I don't believe Tiger will retire from golf ... he's got five more majors to win to beat Jack."
Yet the fact Woods used a very powerful and vague word -- "indefinite" -- has more than a few people frightened in the golf, sports and corporate worlds. Depending on the state of his marriage and family, isn't it possible he could be gone for a long time? His Friday night statement, in which he acknowledged his "infidelity" for the first time, was wrapped in emphatic language. "I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children," Woods wrote. "I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness.
"I'd like to ask everyone, including my fans, the good people at my foundation, business partners, the PGA Tour, and my fellow competitors, for their understanding. What's most important now is that my family has the time, privacy, and safe haven we will need for personal healing. After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person."
That will be much easier said than done. A day doesn't pass without a new development that suggests Woods and his family are fraught with too much turmoil to survive. Sunday's headlines included a report that a child-welfare agency -- the Florida Department of Children and Families -- visited the Woods home Saturday along with a marked police car. Anyone surprised? So much has happened inside that home, from the bizarre circumstances of his SUV accident -- were alcohol and drugs such as Vicodin and Ambien involved? -- to the ambulance that whisked Woods' stressed-out mother-in-law to the hospital. Of course, there should be strong concerns about the children, who are ages 2 and 8 months.
And if his main focus is saving his marriage, what of the reports that Elin has purchased a home on a small, isolated Swedish island that can be reached only by ferry boat? Will she leave him? If so, will it further push him away from golf? If he can't see his kids as often as he wants, how will it affect him mentally? These are not tabloid questions. These are fair, pertinent questions regarding when -- if -- he returns to the game that desperately needs him, the game that saw TV ratings drop 54 percent when he missed eight months last year after his season-ending knee surgery. If there has been one constant in sports and life this decade, it has been the dominance and mega-profile of Tiger Woods, the one athlete we thought we could trust in sport's era of The Big Lie. Seems he has told the biggest lie of all, bigger than Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemens, bigger than Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, bigger than Barry Bonds and Kobe Bryant, bigger than Michael Phelps and Marion Jones. His lie is biggest because it is the most shocking, the most opposite of his purported image, the most damaging to a profile that elevated him as the world's first billion-dollar athlete and chalked up 90 percent of his earnings to endorsements. He made a king's ransom off his image. Now, he is about to pay in ways that will cripple him mentally and dilute the star power of Woods in golf and beyond. Without him, golf returns to a niche status, now dependent on Phil Mickelson -- a more sympathetic figure than ever amid the breast cancer battles of his wife and mother -- and younger players to somehow put a charge into a game that has revolved around Tigermania since 1996.
"The tour has got to be worried, because what's the definition of indefinite?" said Greg Norman, once the world's top player. "Indefinite meaning, OK, it might be a year because a lot of issues have got to be resolved? That's the word you've kind of got to drill in on. It's probably damaged the game to a degree. I get texts from family members whose kids idolize Tiger, and they don't want to tell them because they don't want to pollute their minds with what's happened."
"I'm not happy with the way some of our players have responded. I think that's their way of getting back, because they know they can't beat him at golf."
-- John DalyOuch.
"I don't think it's going to help anything, that's for sure," said Nick Price, another former world No. 1. "Especially with the recession we're in now. It's hard enough to find sponsors, and now without Tiger it's going to be a challenge. I think there will be an effect. We all know that. There is an effect when he doesn't play in a tournament, let alone taking time off. He has been golf since he turned pro. And he's delivered on all of the expectations and more. But he needs to get his house in order, no doubt about it. He's got a problem and he needs to address that with his family before he touches a golf club. He needs to be happy within himself when he starts playing again. He owes that to his family. He disappointed a lot of people."
The Woods we see next on a golf course will be humbler and less dynamic. He will go about his business, but he'll be even more guarded and isolated. He will continue to endure snipes from fans, media, apparently even from his own management firm. During a panel discussion about college sports, Barry Frank, IMG's executive vice president for media sports programming, was one of several panelists asked which story would be worth following next year.
"How many girls Tiger was with," said Frank, according to the Associated Press.
Time was when the magic number of the Tiger Woods experience was his number of major titles. Now, it's the number of women he has slept with. If you think he can recover from that jolt to the collective human soul, you don't understand how the world works and thinks in the 21st century.
He has crashed and totaled his career beyond repair. Until we see him again, he is the most tragic example yet of damaged goods.
Makes you either want to scream or cry, knowing something so wonderful has shattered like nothing we've witnessed in sports or popular culture.
The issue now isn't when Woods will break Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major championship victories. It's when he'll return to competitive golf and what kind of condition his game -- and pummeled psyche -- will be in when he emerges from his self-imposed break. In roughly the time it takes to slice a tee shot into the weeds, he plummeted from the highest plateaus of admiration and awe to the lowest depths of ridicule and disdain. He's now a laughingstock, a pariah, a corporate red flag and the antithesis of the role model we thought he was for a dozen years. Simply, a public figure of his magnitude can't portray himself in an impeccable, squeaky-clean way for so long, only to plunge into sordid, sleazy affairs with women so pathetically beneath his stature. The result has been a relentless firestorm of widespread backlash, all over the world, and even a man who has demonstrated enormous emotional strength on the course -- winning the 2008 U.S. Open on one leg, you remember -- will have difficulty resuming life as Tiger Woods.
In fact, I suspect his pride and ego -- so integral in fueling the swagger, attitude and mental toughness to rule a difficult game for so long -- will take such a beating that he returns not unlike the TV character to whom he was compared as a geeky college kid: Steve Urkel. Tiger as Urkel eventually will manage to win five major titles and pass Nicklaus, simply because his skills are too special. But the chase will take much longer than originally thought, into his 40s, and it will be accompanied by a lot of people who don't like him and don't want him passing Nicklaus, the ultimate family man. As far as ever resuming life as the great Tiger Woods, the global legend and most revered athlete on the planet, those days are long gone.
"It may not be possible," he wrote in his latest statement, "to repair the damage I've done."
That much he has right. It isn't possible.
He has been ripped, trashed and lampooned in all sectors of life. He has been dumped by Accenture, which on Sunday ended a six-year relationship with Woods that included a "High Performance" campaign -- please, no wisecracks -- and said in a statement, "(G)iven the circumstances of the last two weeks, after careful consideration and analysis, the company has determined that he is no longer the right representative for its advertising." He is being phased out by Gillette, yet another company rethinking the wisdom of having Woods as a spokesman. His commercials have been removed from all TV networks and channels during the holiday season. He has been excoriated by PGA Tour pro Jesper Parnevik, who introduced Woods to Elin earlier this decade and said Sunday on ESPN, "I vouched for the guy. I told her this is the guy that I think is everything you want. He's true. He's honest. He has great values. He has everything you would want in a guy. And uhh, I was wrong." He has become as big a cyber-freak show as Michael Jackson. He has been shunned by children, such as the band at a Wisconsin middle school that hoped to raise $1,600 from an auction of a Woods autograph picture -- and realized it would have to accept only $300 after the scandal. And, maybe most startlingly, he has made longtime problem child John Daly look stable and mature by comparison.
"I've tried to get hold of Tiger and his manager, but he just didn't want to talk to anybody. I feel like if there's anybody in this world -- after what I've gone through, the ups and downs -- I might give him some advice," said Daly, he of the four broken marriages, alcohol problems and PGA Tour suspension. "You don't stay married for the kids, you don't stay married for the money. You stay married because you love each other. I pray and hope they both get through it and if they ever need anything from me, both of them, I'll be happy to talk to them because I love them both.
"You can't imagine what he's going through, but he's definitely screwed up and I wish his statement had been a lot earlier. I'm in shock over it all, I think a lot of our players are in shock. I'm not happy with the way some of our players have responded. I think that's their way of getting back, because they know they can't beat him at golf. If I was him, I'd go to Oprah [Winfrey]. I would get on her show, tell the truth, and it doesn't matter what the media say any more, because it's all out in the open. I don't believe Tiger will retire from golf ... he's got five more majors to win to beat Jack."Yet the fact Woods used a very powerful and vague word -- "indefinite" -- has more than a few people frightened in the golf, sports and corporate worlds. Depending on the state of his marriage and family, isn't it possible he could be gone for a long time? His Friday night statement, in which he acknowledged his "infidelity" for the first time, was wrapped in emphatic language. "I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children," Woods wrote. "I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness.
"I'd like to ask everyone, including my fans, the good people at my foundation, business partners, the PGA Tour, and my fellow competitors, for their understanding. What's most important now is that my family has the time, privacy, and safe haven we will need for personal healing. After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person."
That will be much easier said than done. A day doesn't pass without a new development that suggests Woods and his family are fraught with too much turmoil to survive. Sunday's headlines included a report that a child-welfare agency -- the Florida Department of Children and Families -- visited the Woods home Saturday along with a marked police car. Anyone surprised? So much has happened inside that home, from the bizarre circumstances of his SUV accident -- were alcohol and drugs such as Vicodin and Ambien involved? -- to the ambulance that whisked Woods' stressed-out mother-in-law to the hospital. Of course, there should be strong concerns about the children, who are ages 2 and 8 months.
And if his main focus is saving his marriage, what of the reports that Elin has purchased a home on a small, isolated Swedish island that can be reached only by ferry boat? Will she leave him? If so, will it further push him away from golf? If he can't see his kids as often as he wants, how will it affect him mentally? These are not tabloid questions. These are fair, pertinent questions regarding when -- if -- he returns to the game that desperately needs him, the game that saw TV ratings drop 54 percent when he missed eight months last year after his season-ending knee surgery. If there has been one constant in sports and life this decade, it has been the dominance and mega-profile of Tiger Woods, the one athlete we thought we could trust in sport's era of The Big Lie. Seems he has told the biggest lie of all, bigger than Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemens, bigger than Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, bigger than Barry Bonds and Kobe Bryant, bigger than Michael Phelps and Marion Jones. His lie is biggest because it is the most shocking, the most opposite of his purported image, the most damaging to a profile that elevated him as the world's first billion-dollar athlete and chalked up 90 percent of his earnings to endorsements. He made a king's ransom off his image. Now, he is about to pay in ways that will cripple him mentally and dilute the star power of Woods in golf and beyond. Without him, golf returns to a niche status, now dependent on Phil Mickelson -- a more sympathetic figure than ever amid the breast cancer battles of his wife and mother -- and younger players to somehow put a charge into a game that has revolved around Tigermania since 1996.
"The tour has got to be worried, because what's the definition of indefinite?" said Greg Norman, once the world's top player. "Indefinite meaning, OK, it might be a year because a lot of issues have got to be resolved? That's the word you've kind of got to drill in on. It's probably damaged the game to a degree. I get texts from family members whose kids idolize Tiger, and they don't want to tell them because they don't want to pollute their minds with what's happened."
"I'm not happy with the way some of our players have responded. I think that's their way of getting back, because they know they can't beat him at golf."
-- John DalyOuch.
"I don't think it's going to help anything, that's for sure," said Nick Price, another former world No. 1. "Especially with the recession we're in now. It's hard enough to find sponsors, and now without Tiger it's going to be a challenge. I think there will be an effect. We all know that. There is an effect when he doesn't play in a tournament, let alone taking time off. He has been golf since he turned pro. And he's delivered on all of the expectations and more. But he needs to get his house in order, no doubt about it. He's got a problem and he needs to address that with his family before he touches a golf club. He needs to be happy within himself when he starts playing again. He owes that to his family. He disappointed a lot of people."
The Woods we see next on a golf course will be humbler and less dynamic. He will go about his business, but he'll be even more guarded and isolated. He will continue to endure snipes from fans, media, apparently even from his own management firm. During a panel discussion about college sports, Barry Frank, IMG's executive vice president for media sports programming, was one of several panelists asked which story would be worth following next year.
"How many girls Tiger was with," said Frank, according to the Associated Press.
Time was when the magic number of the Tiger Woods experience was his number of major titles. Now, it's the number of women he has slept with. If you think he can recover from that jolt to the collective human soul, you don't understand how the world works and thinks in the 21st century.
He has crashed and totaled his career beyond repair. Until we see him again, he is the most tragic example yet of damaged goods.
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