Media Causes Tiger’s Meow

On the day after Thanksgiving, the world’s greatest golfer got in his black Cadillac Escalade and began to maneuver out of the driveway of his Orlando mansion. On the way out, his vehicle hit a nearby fire hydrant, putting a dent in the front bumper. What appeared to be a harmless fender-bender turned out to be the beginning of a downward spiral for Tiger Woods.

Images of Tiger Woods and his various mistresses have engulfed tabloid and news media outlets for the past two and a half weeks, as his little black book is slowly being revealed page by page.

Woods is no stranger to the spotlight regarding his athletic career. He has built an extensive resume of athletic achievements beginning in 1996 when he first became a professional golfer. With his second Masters victory in 2001, he became the first golfer to hold all four major championships, including the PGA Championship, U.S. Open Championship and Open Championship. This past year, he played on a broken leg to win the U.S. Open. To date, he has won 93 major tournaments, 71 of which were with the PGA. But Tiger does not just win on the green, he dominates. His past U.S. Open and Masters victories came by margins of 15 strokes and 12 strokes respectively, breaking a 138-year old record. His beaming smile and unbelievable clutch performances in a predominately white sport have made him the face of the PGA Tour. He arguably belongs in the same class as Michael Jordan in basketball, Jim Brown in football and Muhammad Ali in boxing. The most attention he ever received off the golf course prior to his mishap was sympathy following the death of his father.

While I do not condone Woods’ external affairs, I do believe sports tabloids have been unfairly critical of him, leading him to take an indefinite leave of absence from golf.

The news media was quick to forget Eliot Spitzer’s fling with a prostitute, as the former Governor of New York is now employed by Slate magazine as a writer of a financial column of all things. When Sean P. Diddy Combs cheated on long-time spouse Kim Porter, the media gave him a free pass from criticism.

Why is it that some avoid such scrutiny for cheating with multiple women and not others? Reports on the private lives of professional athletes are far from uniform with politicians, celebrities and sometimes even other athletes.

This would have been another potentially record-breaking season for Tiger Woods on the golf course, as he needs four more major victories to tie the all-time record of 18 set by the “Babe Ruth of Golf,” Jack Nicklaus. It’s unfortunate that the media may have robbed him of the opportunity to achieve that career milestone in the near future.