Like most big cats, Tiger avoided deep water during yesterday’s five-minute interviews with ESPN and the Golf Channel. The talk tracks were well rehearsed and virtually identical, which was disappointing. To his credit, Woods took a small first step toward humanizing himself to a world that’s still trying to figure out whether to scorn his selfishness or empathize his frailties. Time will peel back more layers of a pitiable caracature who to this point has led a sheltered, selfish, and spoon-fed life.
The architect behind yesterday’s talk track is Ari Fleisher, former press secretary to President Bush. Here’s how Ari describes his business on his website:
“The way the press treats athletes and sports executives has become increasingly adversarial and conflict-driven. Athletes who are trained to give it all and leave it on the field now face a public and a media that demand more. On the other hand, players and executives who get it often find their careers are launched to higher, more successful, lucrative levels — thanks to the good publicity they receive.
“Ari Fleischer Sports Communications can help you handle the bad news and take advantage of the good.”
There was nothing new in yesterday’s interviews, nothing shared we didn’t already know. Far more sweeping disclosures and consequence issues will surface in due time and concerns far bigger than marital discord loom large on the horizon. Among them could be the financial implications of extensive deceit. If the IRS investigates, they will follow the money trail. For Tiger’s sake, I hope the funding of his pleasures does not lead to charges of falsificatied tax returns. He is well known to be tightfisted. Rumors about how the cost and logisitcs of his escapades run rampant, as well as which cronies were involved as enablers. As more of this unravels, smoke most assuredly will curl.
The safest place for Woods is the golf course, his lone safe haven. Loyal fans will cheer loudly. Former fans will root for bad shots and three-putts. This is the nature of a gallery and American sports idolatry. Hail the conqueror, boo the villain.
Tiger returns in two weeks at Augusta and it is worth noting that CBS, which televises the Masters, passed on its invitation for an interview. Draw your own conclusion.
I have known many famous male athletes throughout the years and to a man they have shared that life in a fishbowl is the downside of fame because money cannot buy one-way glass. But Fleischer coached Tiger well yesterday on the fundamental first step that all of us who’ve messed up already know: take ownership. The quicksand that Woods finds himself in, businesswise, is of his own mixing. It’s sad it took so long for him to realize he was so deep in it.
Like him or not, none of us envy Tiger’s road to a permanent fix and Augusta will present that road’s next fork. Ari Fleischer will have him well prepped for the next set of rehearsed answers. We will hear redundant quotes, just as we did yesterday. If a question involves something outside the scope of what Fleischer has rehearsed him to say, Woods will deflect by calling it “a private matter.” Based on what I saw and heard yesterday, my guess is he will duck what he can for as long as he can.
Until Woods can own the entire truth of who he really is, and talk about it openly, Tiger will remain vulnerable to a thousand ghosts. A well written tell-all book — and you can bet many are being researched — could leave him vulnerable to another cataclysmic crumbling.
There is a great freedom that comes from reaching a point in life where we own the entirety of who we are. None of us is perfect and the sooner we come to realize it, and deal with it, the better.
I’ve written previously about the “3-Headed Man,” the battle each of us faces when juggling how we want to appear to others, how we do appear to others, and who we really are. The Woods empire was built on the first. His public persona was a too-good-to-be-true charade that has caused global debate because the second — how he does appear to others — has changed.
The power of Woods, and the freedom to finally feel good about who he truly is, will come from a personal deep dive into the third. His voyage to self-discovery will continue to involve very rough seas that represent a far bigger foe than four rounds from the tips at Augusta National.
I hope Woods gets there. He’s got a long and winding way to go.