Endorsements are where the real money is in professional sports unfortunately. Pro golf and tennis have always been quite particular about how their players represent the sport both on and off the playing field. Itāll be interesting to see if the PGA says anything about the matter when he does try to return. But then Agassi was able to come forward with his stories with seemingly little effect, though he was pretty much retired when he did so. The thing about it is that the PGA was on the road to becoming a dinosaur until Tiger came along and brought it so much popularity again.
Tiger Woods is DEAD? WTF! When did that happen?
Thank God a woman finally stumped up said it. If I had said it Iād have looked like an arsehole. Well done that lupillus.[/quote]
Oh come on. People have always been interested in the sex lives of others.
People want/ed to know all the details of Clinton and Lewinsky, Kennedy and Monroe, that Republican congressman who got blowjobs in airport restrooms, that CNN guy with a sex toy in Central Park, that sappy british actor caught with a black prostitute, PeeWee Hermon masturbating in a porn theater, Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Lord Byron, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Pepys, Marquis de Sade, etc.
Why should Tigerās personal life be off limits?
Besides, heās not JUST a golfer. He IS a role model. He got paid billions of dollars to pose in ads, wear certain clothing, use certain objects, and otherwise ACT AS A ROLE MODEL. Thatās what sports endorsements are all about. Companies pay that kind of money only because heās considered a role model. Once he is no longer qualified or willing to serve that purpose the money stops flowing. So itās bullshit to say he can accept all those huge piles of cash for so many years under that assumption, and then when people want to scrutinize his life suddenly claim immunity. You canāt have it both ways.
Anyway, itās no biggie. He brought it all on himself, but heās a big boy, heāll survive. Whether his marriage will is another matter, but in the great scheme of things in the universe, that too is inconsequential.
For many of us, our pathetic little lives are so boring and useless that we must live vicariously though others that are more fortunate.
[quote=āMother Theresaā] Besides, heās not JUST a golfer. He IS a role model. He got paid billions of dollars to pose in ads, wear certain clothing, use certain objects, and otherwise ACT AS A ROLE MODEL. Thatās what sports endorsements are all about. Companies pay that kind of money only because heās considered a role model. Once he is no longer qualified or willing to serve that purpose the money stops flowing. So itās bullshit to say he can accept all those huge piles of cash for so many years under that assumption, and then when people want to scrutinize his life suddenly claim immunity. You canāt have it both ways.
[/quote]
He owes his sponsors an apology. He owes his family an apology. Who he doesnāt owe an apology to is:
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The media that chose to disclose intimate aspects of his life.
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The public who provide a market for that kind of reporting.
He looks like an arrogant sap apologizing. Business might have wanted to sell him as a role model but that doesnāt mean the rest of us bought into it. All he is to me is a boring, dumb guy who is really very good at golf.
What he should do IMHO is attempt to raise the level of debate a bit and question the whole process. The first thing he should do is ask the media āandā the public to share some of the responsibility for the trauma caused to his kids. He choose to act as he did. He can apologize to his kids. The media choose to report his story and the public chose to lap it up. They owe the kids an apology too. The public could never provide one but Tiger should definitley be pointing the finger BACK at the media. A lot of people would cheer him if he did. It is not as if we donāt all know there are more important things for them to covering than his sex life.
You could go on to say that people have always been eager to dig up dirt on each other. Itās like saying that business and government have always been corrupt.
Nonsense. If he didnāt want his kids traumatized he shouldnāt have fucked all those porn stars and nightclub hostesses. HE caused the trauma, no one else. Iām sorry for his wife and kids (and for him) and wish them all well, but the fault resides solely with Tiger for fucking all those others.
Nonsense. SEX SELLS. Media is business. The media ALWAYS publishes sexy scandals and the people ALWAYS buy it. Stand in any grocerystore checkout line in the States and youāll be confronted with dozens of People and US and Entertainment magazines and the like, with stories on Oprahās belly tuck and Bradās spat with his wife and Britneyās boobs. Or head down to 7/11 and pick up a Next Magazine. For a huge segment of the media, such stories are the epitome of what they sell on a regular basis. The evening news with Tom Brokaw, or whatever, may try to appear more sophisticated and less interested in sexy trash, but the more they veer away from it the more viewers they lose and less money they make. Itās not a shameful sin that should be purged from society; itās an everlasting truth. People want to know whoās fucking who, so the media just gives them what they want. Theyāve got nothing to apologize for in reporting this sordid story.
Iām not suggesting that Tiger owes an apology to anyone except his family and corporate sponsors (both of which could be done privately), but nor do I believe the media has anything to apologize for in this case.
It something rather sad about a society that actually would even consider a sports, pop or movie star (the vast majority of which are of diminished intellectual capacity) to be anything even remotely ressembling a role model.
Iāve been checking my email assiduously every three minutes. Bastard hasnāt apologized to ME yet.
Why is that sad?
When I was a kid Dan Gable, one of the best amateur wrestlers ever, was my idol, for his relentless dedication that resulted in phenomenal success. He later went on to win the Olympics and to coach an endless stream of champions at U of Iowa. As far as I know, he still hasnāt committed any great shameful public acts and by now heās an old man. I believe he was a great role model. Others have idolized Nolan Ryan for playing pro baseball for 27 years and setting all kinds of records, while (I believe) avoiding any scandals. Same for Charlie Joiner of the 49ers and countless other athletes. As for pop stars or movie stars, everyoneās taste differs, but I see nothing wrong with people looking at John Lennon or Bono or Paul Newman or Robert Redford as role models. Heck, even (or maybe āespeciallyā) Oprah.
What categories of persons would you suggest are more suited to serve as role models? Politicians? Bankers? Religious leaders?
Why not athletes? While many athletes are moral failures (or just plain humans with weaknesses), seems to me there are lots of good reasons to see athletes as role models, since success in athletics generally requires hard work, goal setting, long-time dedication, good diet, clean living, and serious athletes generally abide by an honor code to avoid cheating, to treat the competition with respect (trying to beat them, but not to physically injure or disrespect them). Of course, such concepts are also blatantly violated by many athletes, but Iām sure that many amateur and pro athletes STILL strive for such clean and healthy ideals and would make damned good role models.
Thatās because heās got you on āignoreā.
I also think, it is the other way around. After amassing money and fame, instead of leading a normal life, celebrities want furthe agrandissement of their egos and WANT to become role models. They look for the target audience. That is what I saw in Woods. He apoloising to the people was like " 
donāt go away. I am still God, i made an error, but let me still be a role model".
I donāt even know what a role model means anymore. Kind of like the āIconā thread someone started about MJ.
They owe an apology to is Tigerās daughters, for telling the whole world about their Dadās sordid sex life. They CHOSE to tell that story. Why wouldnāt they be held responsible for doing that?
On TV today I saw a redhead woman making a tearful statement, with her lawyer there to hold her hand, about how Tiger had told her he loved her andāother than his wifeāthere were no other women. He broke her heart, she says, and he should come to see her to apologize, or at least he should call. What a heartless jerk, blah, blah, blah.
It really may have been the most asinine thing Iāve ever seen. The woman is claiming that her career has been damaged by the publicity. I donāt know what (else) she does, but no one would have known sheād had the affair if she hadnāt opened her mouth and told the world. Just insane.
Looks like Tiger got his wife back.
[quote]Tiger and Elin, sitting in a tree ā¦ the couple were spotted k-i-s-s-i-n-g on Monday.
Itās the first time Tiger Woods and his wife Elin Nordegren have shown affection towards each other in public since word got out last fall that Woods had multiple affairs.
RadarOnline.com quotes a witness who says the two were āhugging and they were kissing right out in the openā in their Orlando-area neighbourhood.
āPeople in the neighbourhood are getting used to seeing them together again,ā the witness told the website.
RadarOnline says Nordegren has agreed to move back in with Tiger, although she hasnāt made the move yet.
āThereās no question the divorce has been called off now,ā an unnamed family friend told the website.[/quote]
I bet thereās a few potential divorce lawyers crying heartfelt sobs of loss over that one.
"letās see now, um, 5% commish (both ways) on a billion dollars: Hey, we just lost out on a cool hundred mill. i HATE Tiger Woods. "
The way I see it, instead of paying the divorce lawyers, Woods must have payed the wife 
Oh yeah yeah and she loves him and wants to raise her kid with him and all that jazz!
This is what I find weird, would a man have stayed???would a man, have forgiven and forgotten after his wifeās multiple affairs and sleeping around was all over the media.
Fortunately, society does not expect the woman to stay, but if she does, fine. Can anyone imagine Tiger woods staying if his wife had multiple affairs with bar men and pool cleaners and splashed all across the papers??
I really donāt care about the couple but I think it is insane raising a child with a man who treats women like disposable undies.
Ithink the divorce lawyes are waiting, they know it wonāt happen now in the heat of things. When things cool down and Mr. Woods gets back his sponsors and game, then itās time to make the kill, and by then she will also have proved to ba a dedicated wife who lived with woods through āthick and thinā. I am cynical.
[quote=ādiveaā]The way I see it, instead of paying the divorce lawyers, Woods must have payed the wife Oh yeah yeah and she loves him and wants to raise her kid with him and all that jazz!
This is what I find weird, would a man have stayed???would a man, have forgiven and forgotten after his wifeās multiple affairs and sleeping around was all over the media.
Fortunately, society does not expect the woman to stay, but if she does, fine. Can anyone imagine Tiger woods staying if his wife had multiple affairs with bar men and pool cleaners and splashed all across the papers??
I really donāt care about the couple but I think it is insane raising a child with a man who treats women like disposable undies.
Ithink the divorce lawyes are waiting, they know it wonāt happen now in the heat of things. When things cool down and Mr. Woods gets back his sponsors and game, then itās time to make the kill, and by then she will also have proved to ba a dedicated wife who lived with woods through āthick and thinā. I am cynical.[/quote]
Youāre probably rightā¦
Youāre right that he probably had to add a few more million onto their contractual agreements in order for her to stay, but. . .
a. He is a billionaire and the highest paid athlete ever, and
b. They have two children together (see below) and if somehow they can work out their problems and live together happily thatās vastly better for the kids than a divorce, and
c. Probably they had a lot of good times together and she really enjoyed the high life with him and, as a beautiful woman, maybe she enjoyed all the attention she gets with him, and
d. Maybe she even felt she loved him (and vice versa), and
e. While he apparently shagged a lot of other women, he did get hugely publicly shamed, perhaps to the extent that he recognizes he can no longer carry on such antics if he expects to have a steady partner, so maybe she feels his apologies were sincere and from the heart and thereās a good chance this time he really will pull off monogomy successfully.
So, I fully understand your cyncism, but I think there may be valid reasons for her to give it one more shot and I think a man might do the same in her position (if married with two kids to a billionaire superstar).
You mentioned forgiving and forgetting: she definitely hasnāt forgotten the affairs and she may not have fully forgiven them. It may be just that sheās willing to give him another chance in spite of them.
Btw, think about how wrapped around her finger he must be now. āTiger, take out the trash, NOW.ā āYes, Ellie.ā āTiger, do the dishes, NOW.ā āYes, Ellie.ā āTiger, give me a foot massage, NOW.ā āYes, Ellie.ā :discodance:
hheheheh Nice!!! But cynicism part II. She may well love him and all that, but he may be a complete jerk (well more of it) and would have said, if you walk now, you get nothing. If you stay, you get this this this, including me taking out the trash. I am sure he has a rock solid pre-nup. And he may be publicly shamed, defamed, but he has all the cash and an upper hand.
Love and forgiveness have got nothing to do with this. We are all assuming, she came to know about these women when we did. She must have known all along. There must have been signs, evidence, whispers, proofā¦I mean with cell phones and cameras everywhere. Tiger duped the media but that doesnāt mean he could keep secrets from his family. Sportstars and rockstars are supposed to sleep around, itās only when they crash their cars into trees that the media spins it into a scandal. She may have known all along and made peace/truce or chosen to look the other way.
I am sure his PR guys begged, cajoled, threatened whatever to keep her there. I am expecting a book deal when the divorce comes out. "I couldnāt think clearly, it happened so fast, I was loyal to him and wanted to be by his side, they made me do it, he is an ungrateful bastard, I vomited when I first heard the newsā the works.
I think this in a nutshell is it. Pretty easy to understand.
Divea, I highly doubt Tigerās PR guys had anything to do with getting the couple to stay together. Thatās taking the cynical angle just a bit too far, IMHO.