Unless something monumental occurs, this will be my last post on Tiger Woods. In my previous post, I applauded the risk taken by Nike in the controversial ad featuring the voice of Tiger’s deceased father, because I’ve always believed that the only way to win back hearts and minds (and ultimately sponsorship deals) was to take us on a real and believable journey into self discovery and healing with Tiger Woods. The ad, while creepy as hell, was unflinchingly real. His ESPN interview prior to the Masters seemed also to point to a real and authentic comeback.
But the big critical success factor for his comeback was always this: He actually has to change. For reals, as my daughter says.
The final press conference with Tiger Woods unfortunately revealed what may be the “for reals” of Tiger Woods. Words like “petulant” and “arrogant” are being tossed about the Interwebs with good reason. In fact, I’d like to add “flippant” if I may.
Whatever self awareness and humility he had going into the tournament, they’ve been shelved. Maybe he’s tired of being a punching bag and taking his lumps. Maybe he feels entitled (remember where that got him?) to better treatment by the press. Maybe he’s just stopped caring. Whatever the reason, the underpinnings of a credible comeback have fallen apart.
But maybe that’s ok. Maybe people will still love watching him, much like Giants fans loved watching Barry Bonds, despite a well known, ahem, ego problem. But I can tell you this – there is a price to be paid for arrogance, ego and dishonesty, and I think it will be next to impossible to rebuild the empire that was once Tiger Woods.
For further analysis, today’s Huffington Post had a great article that highlights his two biggest “misses” in the wake of the Masters – 1) his failure to acknowledge Phil Mickelson and 2) his defensiveness about his temper.
With that, let’s close the books on Tiger shall we? At this point, Jesse James’ issues seem less annoying than Tiger’s.
