The Tiger Woods Effect

After over 3 months of silence, Tiger Woods finally addressed the whole wide world. So how does “The Tiger Woods Saga” affect my blog about Athletes: responsibility and reputation? The answer is simple. No other athlete has been able to successfully divide the public’s opinion and capture its attention about his recent actions and its arguable, suitable, and justifiable “consequences”.

I will start this off by saying that what Tiger Woods did to his family alone was wrong by all means inexcusable. Now I know you people will start saying, “well who are you to judge him?” or “well how do you decide right from wrong?”. But that almost always points back to my argument all along that the beauty of being an athlete is you get to make so much wealth of all kind, that you also become a public figure that is open to all kinds of criticisms. I am sure that you guys remember that famous line from the Spider Man movie that goes” of great power comes great responsibility”. Doesn’t that fit perfectly for athletes because in way we idolize and aspire to be like them so they must observe some sort of public responsibility? It is like saying that you owe to your fans to set a good example.

Still not convinced? An even simpler example all leads to the much awaited Tiger Woods press conference. I am sure that you guys saw the conference, ok maybe a part of it, ok maybe heard of it at least. If at least one of those things happened then that’s a proof that you do live in this world. So where am I going with this? Simple, when Tiger Woods finally decided to hold a press conference very single newspaper, sporting channel, television news, talk shows, and form of entertainment media all hyped up the upcoming event. And on the day off the press conference the whole world stopped turning and stood still for almost 13 minutes to listen. To listen! But it doesn’t stop there because after, after everything you would think ok turn the page and move on. No! the world started saying this, started saying that, was it enough? Is it too late now? was he sincere? I mean come on give me a break. Exactly the point I am making.

Bottom line, Tiger Woods and his press conference really put an icing to my blog. He just proved that athletes do have power and power does come with responsibility whether you like it or not. Sometimes it seems too unfair for athletes to be demanded perfection in every single way, but that is the price that comes from doing what you love most for so much in return. We live in a world full of audiences that await all our actions. When you think of it athletes are no different from every one else, TTC drivers are now taking heat for employee actions and people that make so much money in their respect/job are also expected to uphold a degree of responsibility and reputation or they will lose that power.

Cheers!