I think it’s time for youtube celebrity Chris Crocker (famous for his “Leave Britney Alone rant) to release video number 2.  This one should be titled “Leave Tiger Alone.” 
In all the years I have been following sports, I have never witnessed a more ridiculous drama than the one involving golfing legend Tiger Woods his wife Elin and about 20 porn stars.  We all know the story.  Tiger was always portrayed as a goody goody family man who dedicated his life to golf.  Apparently that wasn’t always the case.  Tiger along with his billion dollar bankroll gave into the temptation of beautiful women who were throwing themselves at him. 

Tiger didn’t cheat in his sport, he didn’t gamble on golf, he didn’t shoot anybody, and hasn’t been accused of rape or burglary.  No he simply slept with a lot of women outside of his marriage.  That is not a crime.  A moral crime? Perhaps, but ultimately not a crime. So why all the fuss? 

In today’s society more than ever the media and general public wait for successful people to make mistakes so they can be pounced on and scrutinized.  Video phones, camera phones, and other gadgets along with ease to post to public forums have become an invasion of privacy on celebrities like never before.  For example last year the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins held a celebration party at owner Mario Lemieux’s house only to have pictures of the event splashed all over the internet the very next day.  A disgusting invasion of privacy.

In Tiger’s case, he had an apparent argument with his wife, the police were involved so it became the biggest story in the news.  It was now society’s opportunity to bring the King of Golf to his knees.  Sponsors dropped Tiger from their campaigns like a hot potato. That is understandable as they have a corporate image to maintain and perhaps using a personality that chooses to sleep with porn stars could damage that very image.

However, this is the decision of individual sponsors and has nothing to do with us, the general public.   Yet somehow we feel it’s our right to judge him on what he has done.  Tiger Woods is a golfer.  We pay to see him golf.  He is not a parent to our children; he doesn’t owe us as a society any explanations about his personal life.  

However Woods did come out with a formal apology that was televised across the world.  He took full responsibility for his wrong doings and went on to say he was getting professional help for sex addiction. The rest he said was between he and his wife.  Good for him, we look forward to seeing you back on the golf course, end of story right?

No, the next day the newspapers and slimy entertainment talk shows were filled with analysis of Tiger’s speech.  Was he sincere? Was it staged? Is he just saying these things to save some sponsorships? Is he trying to save his marriage?   I conclude that it was a little bit of all of the above.

The bottom line is this, as a sports fan I want to know when Tiger will be golfing on the tour again and how long will it take him to regain his dominance in the sport.  The rest is between Tiger, his family and business partners. 

I’m sure somewhere Chris Crocker is picking out his favorite dress and readying himself for video number 2 “Leave Tiger Alone.”  And if you are anything like me, you definitely don’t want to see that.

Agree or disagree, I’m off the goalpost.

www.offthegoalpost.com