Thursday, March 18, 2010
Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods has been entering back into the media more frequently lately. In the past few months there has been much negative attention circling around him from his past infidelities with numerous women. It seemed as though all of America was against this once loved and idolized heroic athlete. There was much speculation about how this man we all thought was the all American family man could have this complete other life of sin and selfishness. Sponsors dropped him, fans turned their back on him, and his family shunned him as more and more women stepped forward telling their private stories of their encounters with Tiger. This all began to slowly turn when he came out to the public with his well prompted speech. Many were skeptical to his well practiced apologies and "practiced" pauses and emotions saying it was too planned out and not genuine. For some, however, there was a small piece of sympathy or hope perhaps that putting aside his personal life, we could still view him as the world's greatest golfer he was/is known for. He is indeed the man who made golf what it is today. I am no saying that people have forgotten the pain he put his family through and the women he cheated with for years, but I do believe that people were able to separate the everyday person from the "celebrity." With that said the newest event to hit the media is Tiger's first return to golf through the Masters. There is much discussion going on about his return and his much anticipated performance. Some say there is no way anyone, even Tiger Woods, would be able to come back from everything that has happened and be able to perform as they once had before. Others think his ability to perform and competitive nature is something that will never leave him and he could come back stronger than before. In my opinion, I think that Tiger is an athlete who will thrive under this kind of pressure and will perform at the Masters to prove to everyone that he can still be the athlete and golfer he was always known for and is taking the steps to get his life back together. I think this may be the first big step is doing so.
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Brittany, I agree with you about Woods and how he is likely to come out of this. Another thing that interests me about Woods as a celebrity is that he has always played on his "universality" and the media has picked up on this aspect. He is the product of an African-
ReplyDeleteAmerican father, an Hispanic mother, a white grandfather, and a native American grandmother. So in a way he represents what we like to think about ourselves as a society, i.e., one that is tolerant, multicultural and welcoming of different perspectives. His recent "bad" behavior has certainly shaken that narrative but you are right that his "apology" news conference was an attempt to regain that earlier narrative. Of course, he always has going for him that he is may very well be the greatest golfer who ever lived and, if again performs at the level people have come to expect, much of this stain on his reputation will go away (unless he repeats the behavior in which case all bets are off!)
Brittany,
ReplyDeleteI am also wondering with the rest of the world how Tiger Woods will return to the game. It appears as though he plans on doing so, but how successful will he be? I still am not sure how I feel about the entire scandal. It is upsetting that someone labeled so 'perfect' by the public came crashing down. When I first saw news about it I was immediately shocked simply because, well, it's Tiger Woods... but then I heard someone say something along the lines of, "Oh leave him alone. People have done worse." After hearing this I couldn't help but agree (not saying what he did was right).
I am very curious how the commentators of his first match back in the game will speak of him!