12/23/24
December 10, 2009
Woods' Agent Looks for Love from Sponsors: After two weeks of news reports linking Tiger Woods to cocktail waitresses, porn stars and other women not named Elin Nordegren, his agent Mark Steinberg has been desperately trying to get sponsors to issue statements that they "had full faith in Tiger and backed him completely," according to Daily Beast. Steinberg's having trouble with Gillette ("the best a man can get"), Gatorade ("Is it in you?") and Accenture ("Go on. Be a Tiger"), but a Nike flack issued this comment: "Nike supports Tiger and his family. Our relationship remains unchanged." Sure, Nike says that now, but what they find out Tiger's been running around on them with Adidas?
The players coming out against him will make it even more likely that he takes an extended vacation.
Been a slow week, we should have seen several new concubines by now...maybe he's changed his ways.
posted by dviking at 07:58 PM on December 10, 2009
Ben Crane rips Tiger, calling him "a phony and a fake".
Ben Crane & Charles Warren have denied ever speaking to Life & Style magazine.
According to the article, the magazine spoke to them at Q-school, but Crane wasn't there and Warren left before the final round.
I'm not saying the quotes were made up, but Ben Crane wasn't the guy who said that to Life & Style.
posted by MrNix67 at 09:16 PM on December 10, 2009
Thanks for the info, Nix.
posted by rcade at 09:21 PM on December 10, 2009
Sure, Nike says that now, but what they find out Tiger's been running around on them with Adidas?
I love it.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 10:20 PM on December 10, 2009
Are you telling me that Life & Style Magazine might not be a source upon which to hang my hat? Fuck. Next you'll claim that BatBoy wasn't really the best man at the Elvis/Sasquatch wedding.
posted by tahoemoj at 02:19 AM on December 11, 2009
Yesterday, someone (not here) put it to me that Tiger is being unfairly harrassed by the press over this and that he shouldn't be any more accountable to them for his actions than any of the rest of us. In other words, they disputed that he'd ever used a "family man" image to sell or endorse a product or service.
I can only assume they never saw this AMEX publicity shot, or this AMEX advert, or any of these family pictures released to the press.
Some photos he seems less willing to share with the world seem to be doing the rounds:
Tiger Woods went to court Thursday to block British papers from publishing photographs of his "naked parts" or sexcapades. His London lawyers said the order issued by the High Court was in no way an admission that X-rated snaps even exist. "Our client is not aware of any images," the lawyers said in a letter obtained by the gossip Web site TMZ. "And in any event he would not have consented to any such photographs being taken."
posted by JJ at 05:19 AM on December 11, 2009
My favourite bit from that last link was the quote from Nicklaus:
Golf great Jack Nicklaus predicted the scandal would die down soon. "Our public is pretty forgiving at times," he said, calling Woods a "great athlete."
Just how firmly was Jack's tongue lodged in his cheek when he added that last bit?
posted by JJ at 05:21 AM on December 11, 2009
Just how firmly was Jack's tongue lodged in his cheek when he added that last bit?
About Tiger being a "great athlete"? Tiger is the greatest golfer of my generation and people can debate about whether or not golfers are in fact athletes but whatever is going on with Tiger's life at the moment doesn't take away any of the accomplishments that he's attained on the golf course. This ordeal doesn't change any of that IMO.
With the way the media works in this day & age, high profile athletes are a major target for 'gossip' media and with how Tiger has controlled the media that covers his sport, 'gossip' media are having a field day with this story. I just don't see what Tiger's personal life has to do with his professional life although I get that it's a story but once Tiger steps off the golf course, what he does on his own time is his own personal business and if he did have "transgressions" as he's already admitted, that is something that he needs to handle with his family.
I've known men and women that have dealt with this sort of thing and it's already a sensitive issue as it is when dealing with it on a one on one basis. But to have all sorts of media outlets trying to determine your every move and trying to uncover things about your past and also having fellow PGA players making outlandish comments about the situation, it just makes thing even more difficult for Tiger and his family.
posted by BornIcon at 07:38 AM on December 11, 2009
Man, what are you talking about? What fellow PGA players have made outlandish comments? His personal life has nothing to do with his professional golfing life, but less than 10% of his income in any given year comes directly from that golfing life - the rest of it comes from him using his wholesome image to endorse products. So when that wholesome image turns out to have been an absolute sham, it's open season, and rightly so.
As has been pointed out numerous times - he didn't just fail to live up to ridiculously high standards and expectations falsely created by the media or even by himself, he failed to live up to even the meagrest standard of common human decency.
He climbed up on that pedestal and said "Look at me and how great I am!" - he has no right to expect everyone to look away politely now that he's fallen off the pedestal and through the floor into the room below.
And what's with the word "ordeal"? This isn't an ordeal, it's hubris come to its inevitable crashing conclusion.
posted by JJ at 07:58 AM on December 11, 2009
Amen, JJ.
Woods' personal troubles don't take away from his accomplishments, but they do take away the mythology that the media has built up over the years about why he is such a successful golfer. Dan Wetzel touched on this in his recent apology to Phil Mickelson. "The guy has been ridiculed for years for supposedly lacking the same commitment to winning that Tiger Woods displayed," Wetzel writes. "So here's my apology to Mickelson for ever writing, saying or insinuating that his commitment to winning golf tournaments was in any way less than Tiger Woods."
Now that Woods has shown himself to be such a dog, it makes me wonder whether companies will be more reluctant to build multimillion-dollar brands around individual athletes. Three weeks ago, if I'd been asked to name the athletes who were least likely to embarrass their sponsors, Woods would have been high on the list.
posted by rcade at 08:12 AM on December 11, 2009
About Tiger being a "great athlete"? Tiger is the greatest golfer of my generation
Your humor detector is broken. Isn't this all further proof of Tiger's inhuman endurance, conditioning and focus on the goal?
posted by yerfatma at 08:25 AM on December 11, 2009
Man, what are you talking about? What fellow PGA players have made outlandish comments?
Ben Crane rips Tiger, calling him "a phony and a fake".
Your humor detector is broken.
Probably just frozen since it's freezing here in Jersey this morning. Brrrrrrrr...
posted by BornIcon at 08:31 AM on December 11, 2009
That story appears to be fake.
posted by rcade at 08:34 AM on December 11, 2009
Jesper Parnevik's comments were not fake. His "maybe not Just do it! like Nike says" comment were ridiculous.
posted by BornIcon at 08:43 AM on December 11, 2009
Even if Crane had said that (he wasn't even at the tournament they claim to have interviewed him at), what would be outlandish about it?
posted by JJ at 08:43 AM on December 11, 2009
His "maybe not Just do it! like Nike says" comment were ridiculous.
You think? Sounds like good advice to me.
posted by JJ at 08:44 AM on December 11, 2009
This is just my opinion but I just don't see why people put athletes on such a high pedastal, they're human just like any one of us and make mistakes. He's not the first or the last person to have strayed from his marriage, he's just so high profile that getting a Tiger story is a sure way of selling that product.
You think? Sounds like good advice to me.
I didn't say that it wasn't funny because it was, it was just a ridiculous comment for Jesper to make.
posted by BornIcon at 08:49 AM on December 11, 2009
Tiger Woods did as much as the media to put himself on a pedestal with all of his marketing deals. Also, most people who stray from their marriage do not cheat with a dozen or more women. I think your sympathy is misplaced.
I am looking forward to next golf season. Rooting against Tiger ought to be entertaining. It's like pro wrestling where a hero becomes a heel.
... what would be outlandish about it?
The part where Fake Ben Crane went after Elin was pretty outlandish. He must be going through a rough divorce with Mrs. Fake Ben Crane.
posted by rcade at 09:11 AM on December 11, 2009
I think your sympathy is misplaced.
You're mistaking me questioning why people are so upset at Tiger for sympathy. I don't sympathize anyone who puts themselves in the position that Tiger has. I'm just not going to judge Tiger for what he's done since his personal life doesn't affect me at all.
I am looking forward to next golf season. Rooting against Tiger ought to be entertaining. It's like pro wrestling where a hero becomes a heel.
That's nuts because I was thinking the exact same thing. Will he become like Stone Cold Steve Austin and start giving everyone the middle finger and giving stunners to the opposition? That would be awesome! Imagine the new sponsors that he could attract.
posted by BornIcon at 09:20 AM on December 11, 2009
Tiger was apparently paying for sex too.
posted by dfleming at 09:45 AM on December 11, 2009
Maybe he should admit to being a sex addict. It worked for Eric Benet, who was married to Halle Berry at the time.
posted by yzelda4045 at 09:52 AM on December 11, 2009
Rooting against Tiger ought to be entertaining.
I wonder if people will still yell "Get in the hole" on every drive?
allright, that was lame, but someone had to say it.
posted by smithnyiu at 10:57 AM on December 11, 2009
I find it highly unlikely that Tiger has been the ONLY one who has had transgressions while on the PGA Tour. If this story had been about John Daly, would it have gotten this much attention? Now I understand John Daly isn't Tiger but neither is any other golfer on the tour. The more popular you are, the harder papers like the National Inquirer will try to find dirt on you. Wasn't Michael Jordan fooling around on his wife? It never got this much attention.
posted by dbt302 at 12:14 PM on December 11, 2009
I didn't say that it wasn't funny because it was, it was just a ridiculous comment for Jesper to make.
Just about anything that Parnevik says, Tiger deserves. Parnevik introduced him to his wife, and obviously (and rightly) regrets doing that.
Maybe he should admit to being a sex addict. It worked for Eric Benet, who was married to Halle Berry at the time.
I've been thinking that he has to try the addiction angle. Maybe it could be pain medicine that he took for his knees making him act crazy.
This started out entertaining, but now it is just a little too painful and too embarrassing to watch. One of Tiger's lady friends was on the Today show this morning and then Kelly (from Regis and Kelly) is wondering why he never hit on her. He is the talk of talk radio, late night TV, morning shows, everything. Tiger needs to hope that some scandal comes along and fast to push him off the front page.
Make the small stop, please!
posted by bperk at 12:25 PM on December 11, 2009
Maybe he should admit to being a sex addict. It worked for Eric Benet, who was married to Halle Berry at the time.
If I were married to Halle Berry I'd be a sex addict, too.
posted by kirkaracha at 05:01 PM on December 11, 2009
If I were married to Halle Berry I'd be a sex addict, too.
Ummm, yeah.
posted by tommybiden at 05:25 PM on December 11, 2009
Charlie Pierce's reflections are worth a read:
Back in 1997, one of the worst-kept secrets on the PGA Tour was that Tiger was something of a hound. Everybody knew. Everybody had a story. Occasionally somebody saw it, but nobody wanted to talk about it, except in bar-room whispers late at night. Tiger's People at the International Management Group visibly got the vapors if you even implied anything about it. However, from that moment on, the marketing cocoon around him became almost impenetrable. The Tiger Woods that was constructed for corporate consumption was spotless and smooth, an edgeless brand easily peddled to sheikhs and shakers. The perfect marriage with the perfect kids slipped so easily into the narrative it seemed he'd been born married.So, this isn't quite tall-poppy syndrome. This is a bit like the Madoff Ponzi scheme: eventually, you can't keep up the charade, and it all collapses. If he makes it to the Ryder Cup in Wales next year, somehow I imagine the galleries may be raucous.
posted by etagloh at 12:10 AM on December 12, 2009
Ben Crane rips Tiger, calling him "a phony and a fake". He also suggests that Elin "turned a blind eye because of the money and the kids and the lifestyle he provides." Yikes!