Tiger Woods and the accident — our fascination with the tawdry
Waiting until next Monday’s Bad sports, good sports column to write about Tiger Woods seems like a missed opportunity. Despite the fact that I am not someone who enjoys gossip, I feel like something needs to be said. If you just got back from Mars and haven’t looked at a television or the Internet until you clicked directly to When Falls the Coliseum and saw my post, Tiger Woods ran into a bit of an issue a few days ago when he wrecked his SUV in front of his driveway at 2:30 AM, injuring himself and bringing a whole lot of attention onto himself, much of which has centered on his wife’s role in the accident and some recent accusations of infidelity, the number of which seems to be increasing by the hour.
The main point here for me is that I am amazed at our ability to feel no shame. I am not talking about Tiger, and whatever he did. I am talking about us…the public…the media. I understand that athletes are public figures and are bound to encounter a far greater level of scrutiny than the average person. I write a column that often points out the failings of athletes in a public forum, so I am not excluding myself from blame. Why, though, are we so preoccupied by the public failings of our celebrities? Is it the idea that we made them famous by paying attention to them in the first place, so it is our right, even our duty, to tear them down? Does it make us feel better about ourselves to know that a guy as rich, famous, and talented as Tiger Woods is still human? If so, why did we doubt that in the first place?
Tiger Woods is the most amazing athlete I have seen in my lifetime. He dominates in a sport where dominating is nearly impossible. The most incredible thing about him is his unparalleled focus. Off the golf course, it would appear that his focus was a bit wider than we might have otherwise thought. I am certainly not saying I am surprised by the mass interest in this; it’s a pretty sensational story. I am just dismayed by the joy that I see people taking in the difficulties being faced by someone who, by all accounts, has never before given us reason to do anything but root for him. I would make a “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” comment here, but I am pretty certain it would come back to me with a “cast the first golf club” joke.
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I haven’t been following the Tiger Woods story too closely but you make a good point. I for one am usually fascinated with reading about the sordid details of celebrities. That probably says something not-all-that-good about me, though. It’s human nature to be voyeurs, however, and Tiger Woods is the latest in a long list of stories that we can’t get enough of. In Tiger’s case, he comes across as the perfect family man, so the idea that he’s leaving voice messages with his mistress(es) really shatters that image. Perhaps we expect too much from this celebrity, but that’s just the way it seems to go.