As of Monday, the media had linked seven women romantically or sexually to Tiger Woods — other than his wife.
The world’s greatest golfer isn’t publicly admitting any wrongdoing, other than to make a pathetic apology of sorts on his website for unspecified “transgressions.”
That said, it’s kind of reassuring to see that a billionaire, and one of the best athletes on the planet, is just as capable as anyone else of screwing up his life.
Sure, Tiger has more money than most people could spend in a lifetime, and had the admiration of millions of sports fans, but still he found a way to end up looking like a moron.
These days, he’s the butt of more jokes than David Letterman or South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (who have both admitted to infidelities).
Should it matter to the average person that Tiger Woods alledgedly cheated on his wife with a number of women?
Of course not.
It really should only concern Tiger, the women and Tiger’s wife.
But does it matter to the average person?
Sure, it does.
That’s because we live in a culture obsessed with celebrity.
Just as many people love to watch Tiger sink a putt to win a tournament, some of us enjoy getting the dirt when a sex scandal involving him, or virtually any other celebrity, is made public.
As Don Henley sang in a song many years ago, “We love dirty laundry.”
And in all fairness, if Tiger wants to be paid millions of dollars to endorse products, then he has to accept the good with the bad.
If his squeaky clean image is a lie, then perhaps advertisers won’t be so quick to associate their products with him.
Pundits are suggesting his recent car crash, and the resulting revelations about his apparent infidelities, will cost Woods at least US$100 million.
Sound ridiculous? Not if you consider that if he loses $10 million per year for the next decade in endorsements, it will add up to $100 million.
The average person doesn’t have the athletic ability of Woods, nor his work ethic and mental toughness.
But we all have the ability to make mistakes. To a large degree, that’s what makes us human.
After all, to err is human.
And it’s also human to enjoy it when the mighty fall.
Lee Giles is an Advocate editor.