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Who Cares What Tiger Did?
Conor Friedersdorf blogs at True/Slant and The American Scene. Follow him on Twitter at Conor64.
Ross Kinnaird / Getty Images
The details of his accident and possible domestic dispute are still rolling in. But does it matter? Conor Friedersdorf makes the fan’s case for ignoring the story.
There is only one kind of professional golf event worth watching: a major tournament where Tiger Woods is vying for victory on the final day. Chasing history at the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship, Mr. Woods isn't playing an 18-hole match so much as giving a clinic on human excellence.
The next time I am watching one of those Sunday afternoon sermons, I'd prefer to be entirely ignorant of what Mr. Woods does off the golf course, excepting his grueling regime of preparation. Alas, I am told by the front page of The New York Times, the cable news networks, Sports Center, the gossip site TMZ, and even my Twitter feed that history’s greatest golfer crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant near his driveway this weekend, hit a neighbor’s tree, and wound up lying down on the street as police arrived to investigate.
Except in the most extreme circumstances, athletes shouldn’t be treated as public figures when they are off the court, the field, or the course.
Understand that ignorance would be bliss for me regardless of what actually happened. Should The New York Times' account prove correct—if Mr. Woods got in a minor auto accident that led his wife to break the rear window in an effort to free him from the vehicle—I hardly care, unless his injuries wind up keeping him from an upcoming tournament. Or if TMZ is correct—if the wife accused Mr. Woods of cheating, chased him down the driveway, and bashed the rear window in with a golf club as he fled—I desire to know even less.
• Gerald Posner: Tiger’s $100 Million Car Crash Every aficionado knows that sports are worth playing and watching as a simulacrum of life. Contriving various games with sets of rules, and leagues of competitors, we're meant to enjoy the beauty of athletic prowess, to be awed by bodies that can do things ours can't, to experience the suspense of live competition, the thrills of victory, and the lows of defeat—and to learn from the spectacle, all without the consequences of actual battle.
The effect is ruined when real life intrudes, even if only in the mind of the viewer, just as a movie is diminished when an actor's real-life personality is as much a presence as the character he is playing, or a play suffers when a stagehand is heard sneezing behind the scenery during a climactic scene.
Basketball happens to be my favorite game. I've rooted for the Los Angeles Lakers ever since my father sat me beside him as an infant to cheer on Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Byron Scott, Michael Cooper, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. There are game-winning shots—Magic's hook against the Celtics, Brian Shaw's banked-in three-pointer against the TrailBlazers, Derek Fisher's heave with less than a second on the clock to beat the Spurs—that caused me to involuntarily leap off the couch, shout aloud with joy, and crash back down, heart pumping, grin plastered upon my face. In exchange for these highs, I suffer the Lakers' losses, but at worst I am slightly grumpy the evening after they are eliminated from the playoffs. Awaking the next day, it hardly matters to my life that another victory will have to await next season.
It is sometimes inevitable that real life intrudes on this bargain, as when Magic Johnson was diagnosed with HIV, an event I hardly knew how to process as a 12-year-old kid who idolized him. Kobe Bryant's rape trial is another event that a Lakers fan couldn't help but have to know about. And could any of us enjoy his on-court performances quite as much during that fateful season?
In contrast, Tiger Woods isn’t retiring, or deathly ill, or accused of a serious crime that could cause him to miss a year of golf, or even send him to jail for life.
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greengirl
I hear you Conor, its really none of our business.
louis4louis
Wonder if people will be saying its none of our business if it was Tiger who clubbed his wife after an argument...mmmm....just thinking.
SteveStephens
I agree with the sentiment of this article. But for about 30 years, it has been obsolete. The press LIVES for this kind of story.
coltraning
Yup, cable "news" is having multiple orgasms over it now, with CNN having an exceptional number of petit morts...it is the Michael Jackson, I mean the missing debutante, I mean the Lewinsky dress, I mean the OJ trial...all over again.
They will spend far more time on this the next month than on climate change, that's for damn sure...
madisonm
If he's so "perfect" and it was "nothing" he would have spoken to police and the media by Saturday to clarify any possible lame gossip.
shewolf884
Why should he speak to the police or the media? ............ Just to satisfy the media's "unending" delving into private lives. This is absurd.
I agree with the writer. I don't care much for golf, but will watch Tiger Woods every time he plays and it has nothing to do with him personally. He is a technician, a master, and maybe the the best golfer there has ever been. Nothing else matters.
ghana1976
Why should he talk to the police? Apparently you don't know that YOU AREN'T REQUIRED TO SPEAK TO THE POLICE just because they want you to. Besides how many people back up and hit a fire hydrant or tree, or wall--so the hell what. Too bad Americans have become a group of jealous, ugly folks with nothing better to do than worry about other folks' lives. Why not worry about YOUR WIFE and how she's banging since you obviously are spending too much time worrying about Tiger's life.
Gretasue
Whats to tell , he backed out hit a water hydrant, his wife broke the glass to unlock the doors. Hardly takes a 3rd grader to write that down, let alone all the media an cops... Give the Man his privacy...
speechrock
We do not know these celebrities we are fed an image through the media. There is clearly something about celebrity that compels certain sexual, drug and substance abuse behavior. I am never surprised and do not invest in these headliners beyond the patina of public relations. I always have a healthy skepticism of sports accomplishments due to perfomance enhancing drugs. It is hard enough to know oneself, our families and friends. To pretend to know Tiger Woods is folly.
Jaygim
What grand irony of a commentary: I believe the DB beat many to the punch covering this story, so I guess your thoughts should be taken as a sort of clarion call to journalistic house-cleaning? But, why we care is obvious: 99% of the media today wouldn't exist w/o consumers eating it up. So, who's the real beast here?
tolatetocry
a young couple had an argument. End of story, true enough. Problem is, the police wouldn't make an appointment with you or me if our vehicle rammed into hydrant and a tree. We'd probably be in jail. True enough!
crymeariver
WRONG!
Actually "we" talk to the police right away because we think we HAVE to. Technically, you don't have to talk to the police right away. You have the right to tell them to come back later if you want. The only time you are REQUIRED to deal with the police on THEIR schedule is if they have a warrant for your arrest.
"We" normal citizens don't know our rights, so we do whatever the police tell us to do. People like Tiger Woods have TEAMS of attorneys that he can call and who can tell him his rights. So Woods is not breaking any laws.
Glenda1976
Crymeariver,
Sign up for hooked on phonics and learn how to read. No one said Tiger is breaking laws, just that the police would not be as accomodating to us as they are to him!
Genni2002
Agree with you tolate, anyone else would be compelled to talk to the police under police pressure.
And, perhaps we don't know our rights, likely, but then police are oftentimes (not always) less polite, shall we say, with mere citizens vs. celebs.
shewolf884
That would probably be because "celebs" have tons of attorneys on retainer that have told them not to speak without them. We, mere citizens, don't have the $$$ for that.
Very simple. I think, if we said to the police, "I will not talk to you without an attorney", no police is going to walk over that. No way. We just don't realize it or remember it. 5th Amendment & Miranda covers this, I think.
Glenda1976
If their drama stayed in their house it would have been their private business. But the Woods' made it public business when the police got called, not to mention him running into a fire hydrant and a neighbor's tree.
crymeariver
Glenda,
you say a lot of stupid things but this is by far the worst. You think a guy who is being beaten up by his wife, should have stayed in the house and put up with the abuse? You think he should have stayed long enough to start hitting his wife back? Sorry, but you are an idiot.
Situations like that only get worse and end up perhaps with a dead body at the end of the day. The only SANE thing to do is walk away. Woods did the right thing. And it REALLY isn't any of your business any more than the issues involved in your neighbor's marriage. Assuming of course that you don't go around looking into your neighbor's window to see what's going on in their bedroom. However, something tells me that you probably do.
sillylemur
I don't think anyone is suggesting he was wrong to leave the house, but once you take a fight outside, it is no longer private, rather by definition.
When the cops come to your house at 2 AM, after you've driven your car into a tree and a hydrant, you're in the middle of the road & your wife is hovering over you in hysterics, after she's bashed in your back windows (for whatever reason), even if you're not famous, at least your neighbors will be talking about it for days to come. There's not much private at all about an incident that is in the road and involves the cops.
Glenda1976
Thanks Sillylemur,
Crymeariver is brain dead as usual.When they took the fight outside it became public business. You pssmeariver, did I say anything about him hitting her back? Read you illiterate jacka$$. You said the only sane thing to do is walk away. Well Tiger didn't walk did here, he got behind the wheel of a car and damn near tore the neighborhood up! And yes, if my neighbor runs into MY tree with his SUV because of a fight with his wife, you're DAMN STRAIGHT it's my business!!!
Johnnyappleseed
Cryer, conjecture on your part.
kc1920
They actually told the police they aren't up to talking to them. I dare anyone to try that and see what happens
hkjonus
KC, you don't know your rights. And since you don't know them, you dont want those that do to have them. Sick & Twisted Logic, but understandable considering the source. You all think that because these celebs make the big bucks and have worshipers that follow them, they should be held to a higher standard. Nonsense. STOP the idolization and worship. Thats the solution!
maspring
"Who Cares What Tiger Did?"
I certainly don't.
Nazman
None of our business? Hooey. I'll tell you why he's our business. Because we worship at the Altar of Illusion. And, they, the Players, the Celebrated, live in their Ivory Towers or Gated Communities (our Corporate Kings and Queens) with all the options that our hard earned money can buy. They (like the highly controlling/overcontrolled Tiger, himself) are Master's at perpetuating the illusion (through the help of the massive media monster) professing that somehow they are more than just mere mortals. Bigger than life itself? Life? Tiger is just a fragile and mistaken man w/ a skill and a wealth of celebrity that is as flimsy as the back window of his Escalade ironically shattered by an equally shocked (if not raging wife and mother of two) who just happened to use his 21 degree Nike Rescue club (was it?) to speak her mind . Give thanks, my friends, that we can all get a little closer to the truth. He is not a legend. He's just a golfer who probably had the Game stuffed into his brain long before he had a chance to understand it but just long enough to spin it ever so Masterfully around and around and then into the Grand Cup of Seduction. This Seduction is broad and far reaching - in every avenue of our star studded fantasy to include any piece of the contemporary landscape cascading right on up to our most prized elected officials. Officials. Every match, every competition has em. Enjoy the Game my friends. But remember it's all just a Game...
Johnnyappleseed
In a way they are immortal, because we allow it.
It's the average person's way of living a dream, nothing wrong with that.
Nazman
Johnny
No nothing wrong w/ "living a dream." Just that we all got to wake up sooner or later...
torodad
Since television covers golf tournaments in which Mr.Woods participates as though he is the only player on the course, it is no surprise to me that the media are treating his as the only car accident that occurred in the last week. For reporters, when he appears, everyone else disappears. Perhaps an idiot shouted, "Into the hydrant!" and Woods obliged.
BunnyLee
Cute and sadly true...but why did an "idiot" have to shout. Why couldn't a person who just happens to have a passion for golf shout? Why the constant name calling?
neverlate
This is rich coming from a site that probably spends half its budget tracking down Palin foibles. Why should Tiger be different from any other celebrity?
PaulJG
Because Tiger Woods is a private citizen, not a public official who aspires to be the birthers' Joan of Arc (unlike Quitter Palin).
Johnnyappleseed
Nothing is private when you are a super star.
GPatton
Hmm, Tiger's wife takes after him with (what kind of club was it?) a golf club, and chases him out of the house -- and we're just supposed to ignore it!!!?? Fat chance. George Patton
Johnnyappleseed
Six Iron, I vote six Iron.
GPatton
Yeah, a six iron, maybe. But his wife looks capable of handling a driver no problem. George Patton
carouzer
George--How do we know that the accident resulted from Tiger's wife doing anything? Unless he or she is charged with a crime of some type, why is it a public matter?
GP, although you've been dead for a long time, you continue to demonstrate an unerring and sometimes inappropriate interest in to lives of the living...I guess given your personal situation, that is somewhat understandable, if annoying. But let's not jump to unsubstantiated conclusions. I agree with the author of this piece--it isn't any of our business--nor should it be.
As for Tiger--what most of us know about him results for his work in two areas--in the game of golf and in philanthropy. He is the best golfer on the planet and arguably, the best to ever play the game. As a philanthropist he has created a foundation that does great work in teaching kids--particularly at risk kids--to read, study and learn. Is he a saint? No. But he's an extraordinarily talented young man who has done more in his workplace, and more in his charitable efforts than you or anyone else here who has made unsavory and to date unfounded suppositions about what led up to his accident.
I hope that IF he and his wife have domestic issues, they are allowed to work them out in peace, out of the public eye. They have a lot at stake, including two small children whom they both clearly love and who depend on them.
If this had happened to a "regular Joe," no one would have taken notice and the accident would have been duly noted in the police blotter of the local newspaper.
Without any criminal basis--and it has not, to this point none has been alleged--it truly is none of our business. You, GP, will undoubtedly become immersed in the next celebrity scandal. And I will look forward to seeing Tiger back at work on the golf course, where he is a wonder to behold.
Gretasue
Wonderfully written, and I agree 100% ...
Danbury
I don't agree with this argument. Professional athletes (and other celebrities) argue that they are not role models and/or that their private lives are not for public consumption, that it's their craft that is fair game.
However, they DO invade OUR lives when they pitch products for no reason other than to make a lot of money, money that comes from our wallets. Pitching Buicks has nothing to do with golf or how good Tiger is at it. He does it for the money, and he takes it upon himself to tell us what personal decisions we should make, and he's paid to do it. That's pretty sleazy and totally un-golf related. Indeed, Buick contracts with Tiger BECAUSE he can influence people in their personal decision making, so much so that he makes more pitching products than he does playing golf, at least that is my understanding.
No, the reason we should MYOB and leave Woods and his wife alone over this is simply because of human empathy. None of us would want our marriages dissected in public. (although, at this point in American culture, with morons sending using their children as props in balloon sagas and couples crashing the White House both in bids for reality tv shows, people willing to be dumped and otherwise humiliated on national television, etc., I'm not sure it's true that Americans wouldn't gleefully have their marital pathologies laid out for all to see!).
If this is a marital dispute, it's sad and hard for the Woods's, both of them (although, next time bake him an Alpo meatloaf instead of taking a golf club to him. Violence - a no-no under any circumstances). We should empathize with them, not treat them as folly through which we can exorcise our own struggles and failures or, worse, take out our schadenfreude.
There is a place in marriage ceremonies where there congregation is asked if they will support the couple, for the GOOD of the couple, for the SUCCESS of the marriage, as the couple makes their way through their marriage's ups and downs. Everyone of course says yes. I believe this act of community extends beyond the church walls and applies to all of us. We should all want all marriages to succeed and we should not interfere in negative ways that can do further harm to a marriage.
That is why we should butt out.
DakLak
Seconded.
Johnnyappleseed
Agreed!
hkjonus
Turn off your TV and Tiger vanishes from your life. Simple.
The question you should be asking is, why does a pair of Nikes made in Indonesia using $1an hour labor, cost you $75?
JBasMar
Brilliant. But you forgot newspapers and print media. Tiger Mystery is front page news of the Albuquerque Journal.
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getkicksonrte66
You sound jealous
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
sillylemur
I don't really get this thing that people do wherein they pretend our opinions matter one bit to the Woods family. No doubt it is a lot more embarrassing than it is for less public people, but it's not as if celebrities really care about what the hoi poloi think of them, at least not until it affects their market value. My guess is that neither of them is losing sleep over what is on the internet.
Then again, if public opinion matters to a person, maybe having violent, outdoor, early morning fights isn't the best way to keep a lid on things.
DakLak
What 'violent, outdoor ... fights'?
Breaking a window of a car to rescue her husband is a rescue, not a fight.
Danbury
Please. Would you break the BACK window of a ca - an SUV no less - to get a hurt driver out??? How could she have pulled him over two sets of seats?
makes no sense.
DakLak
Danbury:
If had rolled over, Yes!
(He might not have been wearing a belt - he cut his lips - so who knows. Besides why would even an angry wife wack a car involved in an accident?
Genni2002
..she says...
shewolf884
If the car was locked and it probably has an auto lock like mine, I would break out the back windows to try and unlock the front door, then pull my husband out and lay him down. She certainly could not carry him back in the house and he was probably concious enough to say, "just let me lay here a minute, I think I am OK" When someone saw the cuts and blood on TIGER WOOD they called an ambulance. I'm sorry, this is not strange at all. Did she probably have a key, yeah, but in a panic, when she could not get the vehicle door open, she ran back and got a golf club to break a window and get him out. I agree, "Breaking a window of a car to rescue her husband is a rescue, not a fight."
sillylemur
DakLak - She was supposedly hitting the back window as he was driving away, and that caused him to swerve and hit a tree, I would count that as a violent, outdoor fight. She didn't hit the back window to save him. He was in the front, the SUV had not rolled. Your scenario does not fit the facts.
crypto
The nitty gritty is that no laws have been broken. Everything reported so far is just something between the Woods and the insurance company. The cops, if thay continue this, are fishing to try to find something. Let the man and his wife, AND the insurance company reconcile whatever problem there was and forget it.
sillylemur
Are you so sure that it is true that no laws were broken? Depending on the domestic violence laws in FL, there might have been, or that might be one reason the cops still want to question them. The cops having questions is a lot less odd than their refusal to be interviewed by them.
What about filing a false police report? His wife supposedly gave two versions of events. Doesn't the insurance company care about that, too? I know mine would want an accounting of events, to include a police report that matched the insurance and medical reports. I couldn't just make things up, depending on which person I was talking to at the moment. The story would have to make sense, and theirs seems not to.
crypto
Like I said, and now you're doing it, Fishing.
DakLak
Always chat to a lawyer, BEFORE the cops. Involuntary statements, etc.
Johnnyappleseed
Who said domestic violence was involved sillylemming? conjecture on your part and out of order.
sillylemur
Well, Johnnylackingseed, unlike you, and like most cops, I know that it isn't necessary for a woman to break out the back window of an SUV ti get her husband out of the driver's seat when that. YOu can look at the SUV and see that there was no reason at all to drag a person from the front. She also changed her story twice. Believe it or not, but giving obviously false statements in accident reports is illegal, even if you're famous. Her story changed twice, and neither of their stories match the evidence on his face or in the car. Of course the cops have questions. That's not fishing. That's trying to match the report to the evidence. Cops do that sometimes, you know.
tomfarr
Assault and batter is a crime. Causing an accident is a crime.
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