Top College News Subscribe to the Newsletter

Even with his indiscretions, Tiger doesn’t owe us anything

Published: Sunday, February 21, 2010

Updated: Sunday, February 21, 2010 20:02

I cannot remain silent on this supposed news item anymore.

Many of you readers are my friends. Many of you have cheered me on. Many of you have cursed my name. But I cannot be silent anymore.

Ladies and gentleman, I, David Ryan, haven't cared about Tiger Woods' affair, his apology or the revelations of his endless series of repealed endorsement deals.

As shocking as this announcement is, I hope you can believe I feel 10 times worse.

There are endless headlines about the event that, for some reason, has gripped the nation.

It's been on magazine covers. It's been featured in magazine interviews. It's been detailed to death in endless TMZ reports.

Emerging details of who Woods managed to sleep with and the endless parade of people who willingly slept with him coming out as some kind of victim of a lothario's fame were filling the headlines.

As a media member, I am probably expected to care. But I don't.

I can see why it has been so fascinating. Everyone loves someone falling down just as much as they love seeing someone come back from the brink.

Plus, there's a certain cultural allure to celebrities. We see their pictures in tabloid magazines, questioning their love lives and their motivations.

Each week, someone else is having a gay affair in The National Enquirer or the like.

It may or may not be true. And yet, our culture buys into it.

It enthralls us to live vicariously through them. Magazines feature photos of celebrities doing mundane things, such as getting a coffee and parade them as "Celebrities – They're Just Like Us."

It is a condescending statement that just makes people yearn for them more.

So why don't I care? Why don't I log on to TMZ religiously in the morning or during lunch to catch up with the latest happenings? Why don't I care what image Perez Hilton has drawn a cartoon penis on now?

It's because celebrities don't affect my life. Their transgressions, their habits, their daily lives – they don't help or hinder me.

What Woods did is inexcusable. He betrayed the vows he made to his wife on their wedding day – their commitment to be faithful to each other.

His wife's subsequent actions toward him are probably justified, but it's not my place to judge.

These indiscretions have no bearing on me whatsoever, nor do they on you.

Woods should not have had to apologize anyone but to his family.

These staged press conferences mean nothing but damage control. Woods has lost millions of dollars in endorsement deals, a hefty price he's already had to pay.

This apology was manufactured solely for his career and for that reason – he owes you and I nothing.

Woods is apologizing to the industry that has distanced itself from him, the products that have shed his image and nothing else.

The case could be made that because he's a high profile figure, he somehow "owes" us something. He doesn't.

He's a golfer, a celebrity spokesman. He's not a marriage expert, though an appearance on the paradoxical "Marriage Ref" premiering on NBC this week could prove entertaining.

Woods is not like the politicians who campaign for family values and try to legislate their beliefs into our culture.

Those people are to be accounted for their hypocrisy. Woods, on the other hand, is a victim of his own fame and indiscretions. He made the choices himself, with his partners.

I myself have done things at West Virginia University I shouldn't have. I have, for the record, skipped classes when I didn't need to. I've even arrived to class late.

But there will be no public apology from me, purely for the fact it doesn't affect you, your family or any of my endorsement deals.

I am not defending Woods, nor exonerating his actions.

I simply do not understand the need for an apology or the constant speculation surrounding the situation. Woods is a good golfer who made bad choices.

Should we feel sorry for Woods' wife? Sure. Should we really care enough to have our news outlets bombarding us with constant coverage, analysis of his speech and panel debates on whether or not it was genuine?

No.

Because it simply doesn't matter.
 

Recommended: Articles that may interest you

3 comments







log out