Falling from the Pedestal: Did Tiger's speech even matter?
I took away three things from Tiger's speech yesterday:
1) It was everything we expected- full of apologies, carefully scripted and obviously staged.
You didn't need a copy of the detailed script Tiger's PR team drew up for him. All you had to do was look at Tiger's robotic movements yesterday to understand what his PR team wanted him to do.
(Look up, straight at the camera, appear teary eyed)
I am so sorry.
(Look back down, speak slowly and enunciate)
I have let my fans down.
(Put your hand over your heart, look at the camera and pretend like you really mean it)
I hope you can find it in you to forgive me.
Yadda. Yadda. Yadda.
Tiger followed his script to perfection yesterday-which, of course, was the whole problem for me and my fellow cynics. It was so painfully obvious that everything he read came directly from some PR team; there wasn't any part of the speech that made you think that Tiger actually thought anything he was saying.
With that said, his apology was actually pretty good if you look at what was said. His statement fully admitted all wrongdoing- a rare sight nowadays (see: McGwire, Mark) and it doesn't try to deflect the blame. As a radio pundit said last night, it's probably the best public celebrity apology ever. It's just hard to tell whether or not Tiger himself believed anything he said.
2) We didn't learn anything about Tiger yesterday.
It's hard to make any judgments about Tiger in an environment he had no say over.
Speaking of which...
3) What he said yesterday really doesn't matter at all.
And most importantly, it's our fault as a society that Tiger Woods came out looking as insincere as he did yesterday.
We're a society that's all about quick fixes. At Tiger's press conference yesterday, America wanted to see a reformed man with all the morals we thought he possessed before he smashed his Escalade that fateful November morning. But the truth is, after living his entire adult life thinking he can play by different rules, he's not going to suddenly wake up and say to himself, "I guess I'm just like everybody else, and I should act that way."
There's no way that a lifetime of thinking can be reversed after 45 days in some clinic. If and when he ever does change, it will take several years, probably decades, of deep introspection for him to regain the morals and humility that an admiring society took away from him at the birth of his adult life. By looking up to him and giving him fame, fortune and constant loving attention from the second he won the '97 Masters as a 21-year-old, Tiger felt he could do whatever the hell he wanted at a young age- and that mindset isn't going to change, at least for a while, and we can't expect it to. That's all he knows.
I think if Tiger had spoken without notes and from the heart yesterday, as most people wanted, we would've been really disappointed at his lack of progress. So I think that while he widely came across as fake yesterday, he probably did the right thing by saying carefully written and politically correct things. By expecting him to have shown more progress than he could possibly have achieved, we're holding him up to an impossible standard.
And for that, we only have ourselves to blame.
1) It was everything we expected- full of apologies, carefully scripted and obviously staged.
You didn't need a copy of the detailed script Tiger's PR team drew up for him. All you had to do was look at Tiger's robotic movements yesterday to understand what his PR team wanted him to do.
(Look up, straight at the camera, appear teary eyed)
I am so sorry.
(Look back down, speak slowly and enunciate)
I have let my fans down.
(Put your hand over your heart, look at the camera and pretend like you really mean it)
I hope you can find it in you to forgive me.
Yadda. Yadda. Yadda.
Tiger followed his script to perfection yesterday-which, of course, was the whole problem for me and my fellow cynics. It was so painfully obvious that everything he read came directly from some PR team; there wasn't any part of the speech that made you think that Tiger actually thought anything he was saying.
With that said, his apology was actually pretty good if you look at what was said. His statement fully admitted all wrongdoing- a rare sight nowadays (see: McGwire, Mark) and it doesn't try to deflect the blame. As a radio pundit said last night, it's probably the best public celebrity apology ever. It's just hard to tell whether or not Tiger himself believed anything he said.
2) We didn't learn anything about Tiger yesterday.
It's hard to make any judgments about Tiger in an environment he had no say over.
Speaking of which...
3) What he said yesterday really doesn't matter at all.
And most importantly, it's our fault as a society that Tiger Woods came out looking as insincere as he did yesterday.
We're a society that's all about quick fixes. At Tiger's press conference yesterday, America wanted to see a reformed man with all the morals we thought he possessed before he smashed his Escalade that fateful November morning. But the truth is, after living his entire adult life thinking he can play by different rules, he's not going to suddenly wake up and say to himself, "I guess I'm just like everybody else, and I should act that way."
There's no way that a lifetime of thinking can be reversed after 45 days in some clinic. If and when he ever does change, it will take several years, probably decades, of deep introspection for him to regain the morals and humility that an admiring society took away from him at the birth of his adult life. By looking up to him and giving him fame, fortune and constant loving attention from the second he won the '97 Masters as a 21-year-old, Tiger felt he could do whatever the hell he wanted at a young age- and that mindset isn't going to change, at least for a while, and we can't expect it to. That's all he knows.
I think if Tiger had spoken without notes and from the heart yesterday, as most people wanted, we would've been really disappointed at his lack of progress. So I think that while he widely came across as fake yesterday, he probably did the right thing by saying carefully written and politically correct things. By expecting him to have shown more progress than he could possibly have achieved, we're holding him up to an impossible standard.
And for that, we only have ourselves to blame.
Posted by Chris Bianchi at 2/19/2010 5:47 PM 
Categories: scandal, golf, tiger woods
Tags: scandal golf tiger woods
Categories: scandal, golf, tiger woods
Tags: scandal golf tiger woods
The biggest issue with Tiger's "apology" isn't that it was insincere. (Granted, that was still a huge part of it.) The tardiness of his statement is what killed him. He could have made this same speech two months ago when the rumors would have been much easier to control. Instead, he let it go and damaged his reputation even more.
In addition, he handpicked his SMALL audience and didn't take any questions. He may have touched on everything, but he certainly didn't give any definitive answers. Even if he dodged questions asked, simply allowing them to happen would have made him look at least a little bit better.
Given Tiger's (lack of) personality, I expected an empty apology. If I were him, I'd contribute a large amount of money to each of the charitable foundations he runs to make sure he follows through on that part of the deal.
Since it appears Tiger isn't really sorry, I question his motives for getting back together with his wife. If he's only doing it for his reputation (and to save money), then he doesn't deserve her.
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Nick-
Thanks for the feedback Nick, always appreciated.
I'm not sure if he had made his comments any earlier he would've come off looking any better- like I said in the article, he looks insincere because he is insincere, and he's insincere because he hasn't had nearly enough time to come to grips with what he's done, but society demands an super quick, heartfelt apology that he can't possibly give.
The best I think we can expect from Tiger is that he eventually realizes what he's done and changes- but for this to happen, it's going to take a lot longer than two months. All he's ever known is being a hotshot superstar, and you can't reverse a lifetime's mentality with a few weeks of therapy (sorry psych majors), and it's really stupid that we expected a sincere, fully reformed guy in just two months. That's impossible.
Also, donating money is nothing more than a quick-fix cover. He's got a billion dollars- - for him to really change, which is what we all want (and expect), the only thing we can do is hope he surrounds himself with some good people and hope he learns and takes after them. He was donating to charity the entire time he banged those waitresses...writing a few more checks isn't what's lacking.
Thanks for bringing out my inner psychotherapist, Nick.
Chris
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Tiger thinks he all good with everyone now that he apologized... What's it gonna take for him to realize that saying "I'm sorry" is NOT an adequate response to what he's done at all. In fact, saying he was "sorry" the way he did probably made it WORSE for him and his family. If he wants people to forgive him- wait, no, scratch that, it's practically gotten to the point where he's waited too long to absolutely anything whatsoever that he CANNOT be forgiven. Actually, I don't even really care about golf anyway, so if Tiger wants to act like a baby and pretend he's sorry, that's fine with me. He just might want to think about his lies when he goes to court instead...
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