How Tiger Woods Makes MLB Wrongdoers Look Downright Candid

Over the past few years, baseball has seen all too many press conferences and interviews to explain away players’ misdeeds.  Now it’s golf’s turn, with Tiger Woods’ Friday media event, the first time he has spoken in public since his sex scandal broke in November. So I was very curious to see what Woods was going to say in his dog and pony show. Would he cry like Mark McGwire? Act awkward like Alex Rodriguez? Wag his finger like Rafael Palmiero? Be defiant like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens?

Woods had a little bit of each of them in him. But mostly, what struck me is that if any ballplayer tried to pull what Woods did, he would be mocked and pilloried a heck of a lot more than Tiger has.

After three months of scandal, Woods’ first media event featured him standing there reading a prepared speech for 13 1/2 minutes in a monotone that made him sound like a teacher in a “Peanuts” cartoon. He wouldn’t let the media ask him a single question. And he decided to hold this debacle the same weekend of his former sponsor Accenture’s golf tournament. Can you imagine the criticism Mark McGwire or Alex Rodriguez would have gotten if either ballplayer had tried such a stunt?  Not even Roger Clemens would have had the hubris to hold a press conference without allowing reporters to actually ask questions.

Yet Tiger is getting a pass from all too many in the media, who see what they want to see in suggesting that this is now a “humbled” and “contrite” Woods.  ESPN’.com’s Gene Wojciechowski wrote that Woods was following the “12-step program to deal with addiction” in the words of his speech. Gee, I guess I missed which of the 12 steps covers whining about the media for having the nerve to cover his misdeeds.

Perhaps the most obnoxious line Woods said Friday was this:

“I once heard, and I believe it’s true, it’s not what you achieve in life that matters; it’s what you overcome.”

Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester overcame cancer to win the last game of the 2007 World Series  – and pitch a no-hitter in 2008. Jackie Robinson overcame racism to integrate baseball with his Hall of Fame-caliber career. Runner Wilma Rudolph overcame polio, poverty, and segregation to win three gold medals at the Olympics. What, exactly, is Woods trying to overcome – his propensity to cheat on his wife with porn stars and Perkins’ waitresses? Don’t pat yourself on the back too hard, Tiger. You might break something.

Woods also said that  “people want to know whether Elin and I will remain together. Please know that as far as I’m concerned,” he said, this issue “is a matter between Elin and me. These are issues between a husband and a wife.” This seemed a bit hypocritical, given that he had also said the following:  “As Elin pointed out to me, my real apology to her will not come in the form of words; it will come from my behavior over time.”

The golfer reminded me of the way former ESPN baseball broadcaster Steve Phillips – who was reportedly in the same sex rehab facility Woods has been treated at – went on “The Today Show” last week to talk about his broken marriage, and then complained about the media coverage about that broken marriage. Please. If you want to keep your private life private, then don’t go on national TV talking about your wife. It’s that simple.

Tiger did read some tough lines about himself, saying this:

I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply. I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn’t have to go far to find them. I was wrong. I was foolish. I don’t get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me.

That explanation is about the best I’ve ever heard from an athlete about bad behavior. Kudos to his speechwriter. However, those words sound much more potent in print than they did as delivered, where Woods read them with no emotion. Besides, didn’t the way Woods staged his media event, entering through a curtain before appearing before a handpicked audience not allowed to question him, show that he still believes he deserves to “play by different rules”?

The angriest Woods got Friday was when it came to that media coverage. For all his talk of Buddhism and accepting responsibility during his speech, he seemed to not completely grasp that his own misdeeds are the reason his family has had to deal with the swarm of media surrounding him. He also didn’t seem to get that if he had come clean with a rational explanation in the first place for his Thanksgiving accident, instead of stonewalling the press and the police and not showing his face – literally – for three months, the media coverage would never have gotten so intense.

Even though Woods declared all sorts of topics off-limits in his presser, he brought up one allegation all on his own:

Some people have made up things that never happened. They said I used performance-enhancing drugs. This is completely and utterly false.

A little background: When Woods was recovering from his 2008 knee injury, he was reportedly treated by a Canadian doctor, Anthony Galea, who now faces charges regarding possession and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs HGH and Actovegin. Woods had brought the doctor to his Florida home for platelet-rich plasma therapy, although Galea is not licensed to practice in the U.S. For his part, Galea has denied giving Woods PEDs.

At any rate, even amid the swirl of all the Tiger dramas, this story had gotten very little media attention – until now. But some media outlets are starting to talk about it, thanks to Woods’ comments Friday.

Yes, Woods gave a blanket denial about ever using PEDs. But cynics would note that so did A-Rod, McGwire, David Ortiz and Rafael Palmiero. At any rate, why Woods would give the media an opening to give such damaging rumors more attention may be the most head-scratching thing of his stage-managed appearance.

Photo by Keith Allison