Tiger Woods Connects All The Dots

I haven't written anything about the Tiger Woods scandal so far, and up until I read this piece, I was not intending to. The whole story is such a soap opera, and frankly, I don't care that much. Not to say I condone cheating on your wife, but so many people have already written about it, some better than others, that I don't feel like I need to get up on my high horse and reprimand Tiger. But an article about bookies taking bets on the size of Woods' divorce settlement? Now that was just too much for me. The article in question, and the rest of the media frenzy surrounding it, should tell us a number of things about ol' Tiger.

1) Tiger Woods is the most popular, and important, athlete in the world.

Lots, and I mean lots, of athletes are unfaithful. When their infidelities are made public, some get more coverage than others. Kobe Bryant's whole sordid affair in Colorado was very big news, but not nearly the monstrosity that this story has become. It's literally impossible to visit any news website and not have a Tiger-related story somewhere on the front page. Admittedly, the shock of the whole situation had something to do with it, I don't think there were too many people that saw this coming, but the fact that it happened to TIGER WOODS is the biggest story.


2) Tiger Woods is a unifying force.

One of the reasons that the article made me laugh is because of the section wherein they explain gambling odds. Here's the excerpt:

At odds of 25-1, people who bet $1 and win will get $25 plus the $1 stake back. At 6-4 odds, a $4 bet will get $10 in return.

It is innocuous and, if you are familiar with gambling odds, it seems like a throwaway. You probably just glossed over it. Now, what it actually tells you is that TSN thinks that it needs to explain how gambling odds work to its target audience for the article. They don't think gamblers are going to be particularly interested in the article. No, this is for a much broader audience. If Auntie Lynn who is a golf fan, but who watches only the majors, and only when Tiger's in the hunt, is going to read one column this year on TSN.ca, it'll probably be about Tiger. So, we need to explain this sort of thing to Auntie Lynn. If you have a relative like this, you can think of this as a family bonding opportunity. Tiger Woods: bringing people together through his shame.


3) Bookies will take bets on ANYTHING.

I mean look at some of those possible bets. Note that his wife hasn't even filed for divorce yet. Also, people like betting on pretty well anything. I think it's fascinating. I could debate the odds on the divorce settlement for at least 20 minutes with someone, not necessarily because I think the divorce itself is interesting, but because making up the odds would be highly entertaining. I don't think I'm alone in that.


4) There's been a certain gleeful "We got you! You tried to shut us out forever and we got you!" attitude to the media's coverage.

For years, Tiger Woods did his darndest to keep everyone out. And I mean everyone. His yacht is named Privacy. Privacy! So when he finally slipped up, it was a feeding frenzy.

Now I've never been chased by the paparazzi. I've never had mics shoved in my face from weird angles. I've never been expected to be a role model to millions of people. Maybe Tiger Woods' approach makes the most sense. But, I have to believe that you can't pretend not to be human forever. You can't act like you don't have real emotions or that you're not a real person. Because eventually, you are going to be exposed as being a real human being. And when that happens, it's gonna hurt worse than anything you were hiding from in the first place. I can't say it like Jay Smooth does, so I'll close this piece by throwing it over to him. Give it a watch, and let's get some more comments going!


NB