Here's my two cents on what happened with Tiger Woods. A situation that is getting sadder by the minute and shows a clash between privacy and public information.
People looking for Michael Jordan in the NBA have overlooked that it existed in another sport. Tiger Woods is the next Mike - a clutch killer in his sport, a champion and an immensely private individual who has carefully crafted his empire. Everything Tiger is doing is similar to what MJ would've done.
I don't believe we have a right to know what happened between Tiger and Elin Nordgren. I don't believe the media has the right to know either to an extent. And I don't believe Tiger has the right not to tell the police anything.
Anyone who is familiar with law enforcement (or watches crime shows) know that the less you say, the more police will dig. Woods did the wrong thing by ignoring law enforcement for the first two days and because it was a police investigation, you should just give them a story and keep it moving.
That's all he owes. I don't care that the first thing I saw when I looked up his accident on google news was a rumor of an affair. Woods has the right to handle this privately to the public but not to law enforcement who will quickly remind you are a citizen, not a celebrity.
There's plenty of questions we may not know the answer to. Do I think Woods would do himself service by being like Kobe Bryant and holding a press conference. Yes, but remember Kobe was accused of a crime. I only compare the two because both of them were crystallized prodigies of privilege who got into bad situations that became public. Kobe's rep was forever changed and the jury is out on Woods.
My friend Shane has taken the opposite approach in his well-written two cents on this. He made a great point that Tiger deserves the benefit of the doubt here. Where I differ is who I think he should talk to. Stonewall the starving public, stonewall the curious media, but beware how you treat the police.
It's a shame that TMZ and the papparazzi will infiltrate the wall he has put up. But I hope that the truth will come out to those who need to know and nobody is unfairly demonized - its easy to go after Elin but before I call her the Swedish Jazmine Sullivan, I want facts first.
And just think. The biggest story involving Tiger this year was his comeback from knee surgery. Guess not sadly.
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