Friday, February 19, 2010
"American hero"
I don't hold professional athletes to exceptional moral standards. I always suspected there was a good deal of facade in Tiger Woods' public image. Just wasn't sure what was behind it. On the outside he's a corporate brand, & his brand supports other brands, including the PGA. He carries heavy responsibilities. Even the golfers he beats earn more money because he's in the game. He turned out to be randier than I would've guessed, & took greater risks in his personal behavior. It's the risks I don't get. Professional athletes are relatively young when their peak playing & earning years end. They could suffer career-ending injuries at any time, or just lose their edge. Happens often. Woods is aware of this & trains accordingly. With so much at stake, the rewards so great, you'd figure they'd at least try to not cheat on their spouses, not get involved in dog fighting rackets, & not carry illegal loaded guns into nightclubs.
I don't think Tiger fully feels what he's saying, but he does recognize intellectually that his behavior went well beyond opportunity & human weakness. It was too systematic & calculated, if shortsighted. It became a disaster for his marriage, his family, his image, & his businesses. He knows it was self-destructive because he experienced it. Doesn't understand yet why he did it, why he lacked the self-discipline he brought to everything else ( He says it's from not following Buddhist precepts his parents taught him. We all know it's about what his father really taught him.). Nor, I think, does he fully understand that the damage cannot be repaired in a neatly systematic & calculated way, like he adjusts his tee swing. But he will. His marriage may be over. His income may not entirely recover (he'll do fine). He may lose some of his mental edge. But Tiger may become a more contented - & more liked - human being if he allows some of the capacity for messiness he demonstrated in those affairs into his other endeavors & professional image. That's a matter for therapy.
Professional golf itself is part of his problem. These athletes ain't even supposed to show sweat in their shirt armpits on hot days. They don't get mud & grass stains on their corporate logos, much less crash those logos into racetrack walls & send them flying in pieces. Without Tiger, pro golf highlights are squeezed in at the end of TV news sports reports, which almost always focused first on where Tiger was on the leader board. After the podium statement - itself prepared & unnecessary, PGA Tour commissioner, Tim Finchem, called Woods an "American hero," as if the privileged, talented superstar had just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan or landed a jet in the Hudson River.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
I don't think Tiger fully feels what he's saying, but he does recognize intellectually that his behavior went well beyond opportunity & human weakness. It was too systematic & calculated, if shortsighted. It became a disaster for his marriage, his family, his image, & his businesses. He knows it was self-destructive because he experienced it. Doesn't understand yet why he did it, why he lacked the self-discipline he brought to everything else ( He says it's from not following Buddhist precepts his parents taught him. We all know it's about what his father really taught him.). Nor, I think, does he fully understand that the damage cannot be repaired in a neatly systematic & calculated way, like he adjusts his tee swing. But he will. His marriage may be over. His income may not entirely recover (he'll do fine). He may lose some of his mental edge. But Tiger may become a more contented - & more liked - human being if he allows some of the capacity for messiness he demonstrated in those affairs into his other endeavors & professional image. That's a matter for therapy.
Professional golf itself is part of his problem. These athletes ain't even supposed to show sweat in their shirt armpits on hot days. They don't get mud & grass stains on their corporate logos, much less crash those logos into racetrack walls & send them flying in pieces. Without Tiger, pro golf highlights are squeezed in at the end of TV news sports reports, which almost always focused first on where Tiger was on the leader board. After the podium statement - itself prepared & unnecessary, PGA Tour commissioner, Tim Finchem, called Woods an "American hero," as if the privileged, talented superstar had just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan or landed a jet in the Hudson River.
Labels: in the news, sex, sports
