Tiger Ready To Speak

By Zach Shaw

America’s most successful athlete, after being on indefinite hiatus for the past 3 months, is ready to come out and talk about personal problems and maybe give some sort of timetable for his return to the sport he loves. Eldrick Woods, better known as “Tiger” and once America’s premier “good guy” athlete has come under fire amidst accusations of infidelity, sex addiction and even whispers of the use of performance enhancing drugs.

The downfall of Tiger Woods was a high, steep one. Beginning on November 27th with a relatively minor car crash outside of his home, his problems quickly grew into a national phenomena with seemingly every mother, daughter and sister coming forward with claims of having sexual affairs with Tiger. Two weeks later, in front of every major global network, Woods admitted to infidelity and announced that he would be taking an indefinite break from golf while he sorts out his personal issues and attempts to salvage his marriage.

Like before mentioned, all of Tiger’s problems stemmed from an incident that occurred outside of his home when he reportedly stormed out of his home before rushing out of the driveway in his 2008 Escalade before running over some shrubs and crashing into a fire hydrant. Woods was dragged out of his car by his wife, Elin Nordegren, before an ambulance came and treated him for facial lacerations. This little accident, as small as it was, was the start of one of the most epic falls an American athlete has been a part of.

More than a dozen women spanning the globe have come forward, claiming to have been in affairs with Tiger Woods, most notably Joslyn James who claims that Woods has gotten her pregnant twice; once ending in abortion and the second ending in a miscarriage. This affair may be one of the reasons why Woods reportedly went to a sex addiction rehabilitation center. He also had an affair with multiple women from the UK, one who attempted to sell nude photographs of Woods until an injunction was placed upon them.

The fall that Tiger has taken rivals what we’ve seen from other American “heroes” such as Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire O.J. Simpson; Men who after having superstardom, fell from grace in the eyes of even their most loyal fans. The only difference between Tiger and those men is that Tiger’s career is still in its prime. He still continues to be the best golfer and maybe even the most dominant athlete in the world. With this, Tiger has the ability to do what athletes like Kobe Bryant, who was accused of rape and adultery and Ray Lewis, who was charged with murder did for themselves after their legal and personal troubles; Tiger can rebuild his image piece by piece. This fall from grace has also effected Woods’ pockets, losing him millions in future endorsements while many of his sponsors, such as Gillette, have jumped ship.

America is a funny place where the ones we love may not always be the ones we should emulate. Tomorrow’s press conference will probably be nothing more than Tiger dancing around questions in front of the firing squad that is the American media. But he needs to show his face, he needs to come clean with his fans. Americans are a forgiving bunch once you’ve admitted wrong. So what can Tiger really do to get back to where he once was, not only on top of the golf world but of the entire sports world? He needs to get back to what he once was; a passionate, charismatic role model who single handedly changed golf from an old man’s game into something exciting for all ages to watch. And the other thing he must do is win, winning changes everything.