Apparently there was some sort of kerfuffle over the holiday weekend involving Tiger Woods. And by \’apparently\’, I mean it was
completely impossible to avoid hearing about it. Trust me, I tried. So TW backed his car into a fire hydrant, and may or may not have cheated on his wife. This has led to articles all over teh interwebz that boil down to two points: 1. Tiger Woods has tarnished his image. 2. Tiger Woods needs to tell the truth about everything. To which I say: 1. Perhaps. 2. No, he absolutely does not. His image? Yeah, maybe that takes a permanent hit, depending on whether or not any of the facts that come out are accurate, and how juicy they are. Then again, in 1997 Marv Alberts was accused of sexual assault. He plea-bargained a deal, but the alleged details included back-biting, forcible sodomy, and a fifteen year affair with a transvestite. Last time I checked none of this was doing any significant damage to his career. And about a year ago, Charles Barkley was picked up for DUI, and it\’s in the police report that he told the officer he ran a stop sign because he was in a hurry to pick up a woman so she could give him a blowjob. Last time I checked, he was still on TV in a few places.[1. And this parody of Sir Charles is one of the funniest things I\’ve seen all year.] Is \’Tiger Woods having an affair\’ on the same level as either of those things? Michael Jordan had a mistress. He\’s the best NBA player ever, and I\’m guessing if people think poorly of him, they picture a fat MJ, playing for the Wizards, barely able to dunk. If Tiger Woods wins 25 majors, I doubt that this will be anything but a footnote to his life\’s story. As for the calls for Tiger to \’tell the truth\’ about whether or not he had an affair, let me be crystal clear on this: Tiger Woods doesn\’t owe any of us anything. I don\’t want to hear any BS about \’celebrity\’, and \’public figure\’. If he does something that\’s a matter of public record (like careless driving), we\’re entitled to know that (and hey – we do have access to that!). Anything else, it\’s at his discretion what he wants to say about it. We, as a public, do not have any rights to know anything. Woods released a comment on his website that I think is good enough. Why should he be forced to divulge information on any detail of his personal life? He shouldn\’t, and if he doesn\’t want to, that\’s his call. If he\’s not breaking the law in his spare time, I don\’t care what he does, and if he\’s not using his celebrity as a pulpit from which to preach, I don\’t care what he says. We should all be allowed to live our private lives, no matter how \’visible\’ our public lives are. P.S. All that said, this is pretty funny, in an unfortunate timing sort of way.
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