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Dec 13, 2009
Some good can come from Woods scandal
By Ong Soh Chin
Asking why Tiger Woods did the things he did is like asking why a dog licks its bits. The answer is simple: Because they can.
In fact, right until his wife Elin Nordegren allegedly whacked him on the noggin, damaging his career, his dignity and his Cadillac SUV, Woods, conceivably, could do anything he wanted. And that included supposedly having sex with porn stars, abusing sleep medication to heighten his sexual pleasure and dreaming up erotic fantasies.
If your head is spinning as fast as mine at the speed at which newer and tawdrier allegations are being revealed, think of how Woods himself must feel. And how he can only whimper, ‘I’m human and I’m not perfect.’ No kidding, Tiger. We didn’t expect you to be a saint. But we certainly didn’t expect you to go all Jimi Hendrix.
Still, while it has become a cliche for celebrities to whine that they don’t want to be role models, perhaps it’s time we started taking them seriously, especially when it comes to sports figures. These pumped-up creatures are a particularly exalted community of human beings who tend to be perceived as super-human simply because they can jump higher, run faster, putt better and score more goals.
Certainly nobody expects rock stars to be paragons of virtue. As a former colleague remarked: ‘Mick Jagger slept around like crazy but nobody cared.’ And when supermodel Kate Moss got snapped with white stuff up her nose in 2005, it barely registered as a blip in her career. She lost a few endorsement contracts, but garnered more in no time. Everybody knew Moss was a great supermodel, but no saint.
As a non-sports enthusiast myself, I have always lurked in the smoky fringes of jock worship, sipping single malts with fellow degenerates as our bright and shiny friends gurgle isotonic drinks and retire early for the night because they have to train for yet another test of physical endurance early next morning.
Don’t get me wrong. I admire their lifestyle choice, but I would never equate their muscled prowess with moral rectitude. Still, sports stars continue to attract megabuck endorsement deals like Christie Brinkley attracts bad husbands. Woods earns more than US$100 million (S$139 million) a year in endorsements and it is estimated that 90 per cent of his income is derived from this honey pot. Nike, his biggest paymaster at US$30 million, is still sticking by him. But Gatorade, which had a US$1million deal with Woods, has dropped him. Tag Heuer, which has a reported US$5million deal, has taken Woods’ images out of its stores, although it has not dropped the golfer entirely.
At this moment, it is unclear how drastically the money map will change for Woods as the months go by. But the biggest casualty could be his Tiger Woods Foundation which supports 100 charities annually and has benefited more than 10 million youths since its inception in 1996. Some predict that sponsors may pull out at the hypocrisy of the charity’s Tiger’s Action Plan for young people aged eight to 17, which states ‘character education’ as one of its three priorities in character development. But I am of the contrary opinion.
The foundation is the only good thing that has come out of Woods’ morality charade. In fact, if I held the purse strings at Nike, Accenture, Tag Heuer, Gillette and Electronic Arts and I was looking for a way to negotiate my way out of this public relations minefield, I would take all that endorsement money away from the man and give it to his foundation instead.
Then teach the children the most valuable lesson everyone should be learning from this whole scandal – that it is wrong to look outside for heroes and salvation when they should be looking inside and discovering their own inner strength and virtues. Indeed, Woods himself should probably learn the same lesson too.
After all, golf is a game where the only and biggest adversary is oneself. The golfer takes sole responsibility for his actions and all outcomes are the result of his own decisions and actions.
Woods’ biggest endurance test is about to begin. And it has nothing to do with physical limits.
The writer, a former Straits Times journalist, is a freelance writer and PR consultant.
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