Yesterday I wrote the piece “Why Tiger Can’t Take Questions”. There was a lot of feedback before Tiger spoke today. There were two very distinct reactions.
My associations from the media simply insisted that I was wrong, that Tiger had to take questions, that he was being the same old Tiger. Controlling. Over-managed. Frankly, they have always disliked him, and they want him to pay for not being cooperative in the past.
The non-media readers had an almost universal reaction. Just say you’re sorry and move on. Enough is enough. And don’t drag your wife through the mud any more than you already have.
Clearly, Tiger took the road that the non-media readers chose. He protected his wife from further humiliation. He did not put her through the perp walk that Eliot Spitzer put his wife through. He put it all on himself. He demanded privacy for his family. And he made it clear the affairs, while admitted, were a matter of discussion that he would have confront with Elin, not the media!
The reaction from this will be predictable. First of all, his popularity with the public will immediately begin to rise again. He said he was sorry. He never tried to say he didn’t have affairs. He protected his wife at great length. He may have even lied to protect his wife, but that will only improve his standing with women.
The media will begin to back down. Tiger will never get rid of the tabloids, but the mainstream media members that have been arguing for an open book interview will begin to back down. Not all of them, but most of them. They will back down partially because they realize the futility of arguing for something that is never going to happen. They will also back down because future access to Tiger is still a priority to do their jobs. Still, some in the media will recognize that they have already burned the Tiger bridge, and they will drag on the request for open communication. But while Tiger is a public figure, he is not a public servant. His sponsors can vote with their dollars, and the public can vote with support on the golf course, or lack thereof.
What will continue to drag on is the ‘When will Tiger return to the Tour?’ watch. We received no certain answers to that question. Only that he may well return this year. I proposed at one time that if Tiger and Elin were to stay together, that he would have to miss at least one major to show her real contrition. He had to make a sacrifice. Since he offered no real schedule today, I would guess that the Masters is history. Tiger doesn’t make ceremonial appearances. If he were playing in the Masters he would have announced it today, with some schedule of events leading up to the Masters.
I would propose another reason why he cannot ever do a public blood-letting. Gloria Allred is out there, representing two women, and looking for any opening to drop in her $50 million lawsuit. Any public recitation of the facts would only serve to provide a hostile attorney fertile material with which to convince a jury that money should change hands. No competent attorney would advise a public blood-letting as a wise and judicious course.
This is the turning point though. If Tiger’s popularity was down to 40% before this speech, I am certain it will never be that low again. Now it is time to begin the process of moving on. Let’s hope we never see a crying Tiger again.
