Did Tiger Woods kill somebody? Did he commit a felony? Is he a former silent Enron executive? Then why is there public outcry for him to explain his entire infidelity and sex addiction as if he dropped kicked somebody's grandmama?
On Monday, April 5th, the living legend held his first golf-related press conference of the year. In the Master's presser, the obvious questions of his sex addiction and his relationship with his wife came up. Makes sense. Because Woods is such a huge figure in the sports world and beyond, his personal life kind of belongs to the public. Let me be clear that I don't believe the public is entitled access to his private life. It's just that when anyone becomes as big a celebrity as he is, the public tends to force its way into his life by way of the media. It comes with the territory of a celebrity or a public figure.
What is just plain silly to me is that people seem to believe that Woods owes them a full explanation of his transgressions. Don't believe the hype. Woods already issued a public apology by way of his infamous February press conference, and had repeatedly acknowledged that he got himself into this mess. Yet some media talking heads and fans, alike, have insisted that the man owes everyone outside of Lil Ray Ray on the corner Uptown a public apology. It was even mentioned on this morning's "Mike and Mike in the Morning" on ESPN Radio that reporters wanted Woods to go into detail about his relationship with his wife, Elin.
Tiger Woods honestly doesn't owe anybody, except his family, a damn thing. Did he screw up? Yep. Is his marriage in danger? Of course. Did he disappoint his fans? Sure. Have his actions hurt the very fabric of American society? Not so much, granted they didn't help either. What Woods did was endanger his marriage and disappoint those who believe that he is the all-American boy next door. Let's be real. Woods, no matter what image he tries to project, is an outstanding golfer. That's basically it. Other than that, he's pretty much human, which means at some point he's going to do something majorly screwed up.
The problem with 21st Century Pop Culture is that it has granted the everyday Joe access to extraordinary people. One thing that makes a person extraordinary is that he or she is willing to do what ordinary people are not willing to do in order to reach a certain level of accomplishment. Therefore, there may be an inconvenient truth about who that person actually is. I believe that we have discovered Woods' inconvenient truth.
So why exactly have folks insisted upon expanded apologies? Is it because they feel betrayed or is it because they enjoy watching the mighty fall, even if it's only just a really bad stumble?
