Tiger Woods Apology

This is a scene that nobody who was a Tiger Woods fanatic ever DREAMED they would associate with him either personally or professionally.

And therin lies the crux of the problem we see time and time again when dealing with the crestfallen athlete. We assume that the prodigious character traits and abilities that we see and admire in the field of competition correlates with the same athlete possessing the same qualities and abilities off the field. IT JUST ISN'T SO. LESSON LEARNED, ONCE AGAIN.

He's a golfer. A great golfer. Maybe the best golfer of all-time. He wasn't a god of some sort, worthy of false idolatry. What we should learn from this is not to get too caught up in the "building up" process, so that we are not as crestfallen when the athlete goes through the inevitable "tearing down" process.

They build them up. They team them down. They rebuild them if the circumstances allow it.

It's been going on with superstar players since I don't know when.

This cycle should not come as such a great surprise to us because we've seen it so often and Tiger even touched on it within his apology. He got caught up in the situation. He believed the press clippings. The repetitive cycle includes a process of building a person up as the "next" whatever or whoever. We put too much faith and too much emotion in this part of the process. We want to believe in the inherent greatness of those we admire. Inevitably, the person disappoints in some fashion (what, being human and all) and is torn down as an idol worthy of our praises. Then, if they are fortunate, there is a period of redemption, or a comeback. Tiger is simply moving through the various stages a little quicker than we previously thought he would.

I thought the apology itself was very thorough and comprehensive and very heart-felt, if not somewhat mechanical in delivery.

Like McGwire's apology, it could not have been easy for someone who was at one time on top of the sports world, to find himself almost literally lying face down in the dumpster.

Unlike McGwire's apology, there was no evasiveness, no finger pointing. Tiger's apology should be the template for other athlete's to use in the future.

So WHEREVER Tiger finds guidance to deal with this in the future (elbows Britt Hume in the ribs), I wish him luck.