Newsweek Rumblr: Tiger Woods Apology Edition

Rumblr is a forum for NEWSWEEK staffers to debate the big issues of the day, using the blog platform Tumblr. Early today, Mark Coatney, Andrew Cohen, Raina Kelley, and I gathered to discuss our reactions to the Tiger Woods apology. Excerpts are below. (Click here to follow the whole conversation, complete with links, tweets, and some great photos.)

Kate Dailey:  The Big Questions

• Was Tiger sincere?
• Can people really change?
• Can a marriage survive the infidelity and dishonesty that the Woods marriage did?
• Is it fair to ask the media to back off his family, or is that a privileged celebs earn by not being cheating jerks?
• Is “I ask you to find room in your heart to believe in me again” the cheesiest closing line ever?
  

Mark Coatney:  Personally, I think that only heartfelt line in that whole thing was when Tiger apologized to his sponsors.

And “I ask you to find room in your heart to believe in me again” was indeed cheesy, but, come on, is this a surprise?

KD:  I couldn’t tell if it was Tiger just getting overscripted-apology nerves or if it was more indicative of his mental state, but he definitely radiated more emotion when going after the paps then when defending his wife from domestic violence charges.The dead-eyed “Elin deserves praise, not blame,” didn’t quite sell it, even though I agree with him.

He’s addressing the people in his room, many of whom are his friends, he notes. But it’s also a room full of cameras and media. Is this a weird mix of the 9th Step and the first step in Tiger’s PR rehab?

Raina Kelley:  Why are we so cynical? Yeah, I’m a naive chump who believes people when they apologize but I think it was brave for him to do this press conference.  I can’t imagine it’s easy to apologize for cheating on your wife in front of a national audience.

MC:  True. But it’s probably easier when the alternative is losing millions of dollars.

RK:  I think he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for admitting that “I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply” … when was the last time a public figure actually took complete credit for his own failure?

And … when have sponsors ever really cared about values? Let’s be honest: Tiger put Nike Golf on the map. If he said: “I did it and I’ll do it again,” Nike would continue to support him. He’s one of the best golfers in the world and if he stays a philandering jerk for the rest of his life, he’ll still remain a draw on the golf circuit.

KD:  Sponsors care less about values when you're actually golfing … but Tiger may not be returning to the green for a while. I’m also wondering how well Tiger will golf once he’s back. Will all these cracks in his facade affect his mental game?

The one thing that really affected me more than anything in this whole apology is the image of his mother, barely keeping it together, sitting in the front row. Her face expressed the most damning parental emotion ever—not mad, just disappointed. And how. She was pressed lipped, teary eyed. She couldn’t look at him directly. When Tiger talked about Buddhism, he made sure to mention that his mother taught him that faith from an early age. I think his long diversion into a discussion of his faith and how he betrayed was also an admission that he betrayed his mother, too.

Andrew Cohen:  Personally, I’m not sure of the reason for a public apology. An apology to his family is best done in private. An apology to his sponsors is superfluous, as RK noted elsewhere (plus: they’re often insured against “loss of reputation”).

That leaves only the golf world and his fans—which excludes me. Did he let them down as a golfer? Yes, by not golfing. Did he let them down as a role model? Yes, but then they are at fault for adopting a golfer as a role model. Morons.

Being very good at golfing (or anything else) is no indicator of being good at anything else, like marital fidelity or surgical oncology. Doesn’t everyone know this already?