Woods: “I have let my family down.”
On Wednesday, Tiger Woods published a statement on his website addressing the allegations surrounding his personal life.
I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect. I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family. Those feelings should be shared by us alone.
Whatever regrets I have about letting my family down have been shared with and felt by us alone. I have given this a lot of reflection and thought and I believe that there is a point at which I must stick to that principle even though it’s difficult.
I will strive to be a better person and the husband and father that my family deserves. For all of those who have supported me over the years, I offer my profound apology.
The Florida Highway Patrol charged Tiger with careless driving and issued him a traffic citation. The fine is $164 and four points on his driving license.
On top of The National Enquirer report that he had an affair with nightclub manger Rachel Uchitel, two more females have allegedly been linked to Tiger off the course.
From Contributor Bulletin.com:
Five days in the making after Tiger Woods was in a car accident. It dominated the internet searches and after that his alleged mistress Rachel Uchitel whose name is the main searches in the search engines for several days. Then came out Joanna Jagoda, Woods former girlfriend.
The new girl is Jaimee Grubbs who claims that she has 31 months relationship with Tiger Woods. She even has the evidence to prove it through text messages and voice messages. What will be the [sic] next? Will it be Tiger Woods divorce with his wife which will be inevitable because of him who has many mistresses?
It’s important to keep in mind that these are just rumors and it wouldn’t be entirely shocking to find out that these girls just want their 15 minutes of fame any way they can get it. That said, I doubt Tiger will release any more statements outside of the one above and why should he? It’s a private matter that should be just that: Private.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Posted in: Golf
Tags: Elin Nordegren, Elin Nordegren and Tiger Woods, Elin Nordegren and Tiger Woods photo, Elin Nordegren image, Elin Nordegren photo, Elin Nordegren pic, Florida Highway Patrol, Headlines, Jaimee Grubbs, Joanna Jagoda, Rachel Uchitel, Rachel Uchitel alleged affair, Rachel Uchitel and Tiger Woods, Rachel Uchitel pics, Tiger alleged affair, Tiger car crash, Tiger Florida Highway Patrol, Tiger police, Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods alleged affair, Tiger Woods Chevron World Challenge, Tiger Woods image, Tiger Woods pic, Tiger Woods to sit out Chevron World Challenge, Tiger Woods wife
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I disagree completely.
First, he basically admitted the affairs in his statement. The girls may be looking for their 15 minutes, but some have hard evidence, and that’s why we saw his statement.
Tiger is a public figure who makes millions of dollars off of his carefully crafted image. This stuff is real news, and the accident and the obvious desire to avoid telling the whole truth about it make the problem only worse.
If you haven’t heard the voicemail yet, listen to it. It’s about as damaging to Tiger as you can get.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/02/tiger-woods-voicemail-aud_
n_376692.html
Sorry, that’s basically admitting your guilt. He sounds nervous as heck that the Wife will call the Ho…
I think the public has the perception that just because an athlete or celebrity makes a ton of money that all his personal affairs should be made public.
I agree – he’s basically admitting that he’s cheated on his wife. Okay, now what? Should he release what sexual positions he used in the bedroom? Or are you just looking for a blatant: “I cheated on my wife – I was wrong” comment to come out of Tiger’s mouth?
Just because the guy has made money off his image (I think him being one of the greatest golfers to ever play the game has something to do with his earnings too) doesn’t mean he necessarily has to hang himself in front of the public because his dirty laundry was aired. Would it be nice if he were honest from the start? Yeah. It always would have been nice if home boy didn’t cheat, too. Part of me wants the guy to publicly fry for cheating on his wife, but I know that I would want the matter to stay private, so I don’t blame him for wanting the same thing.
I don’t care that much that he cheated. But the fact remains that he’s selling an image. He’s a brand, and this stuff is news whether he owns up to it or not.
Tiger is a great player, but he can also be a jerk. Thus it’s hard to have much sympathy for him.
Gerardo…don’t confuse public figure with public servant. If he was a public official paid with public tax money…say…i don’t know…the president of the united states (bill clinton), then yes, he would owe us the truth about what caused the incident. But just because you choose to use the the razorblade or golf clubs that Tiger endorses, doesn’t mean he owes you the details of his personal life. “This stuff is real news”. Really? It’s real gossip maybe, but news? You may want to raise your standards a bit in that regard.
Gerardo…then don’t buy the image. Just because he has this public persona doesn’t mean his life has to be an open book. I don’t understand why peopple feel that entitlement. Would you share your skeletons with the world if you were a celebrity? I doubt it…or you would try as hard as you could to protect them, just like Tiger.
T-Bone – so you’re not interested in any of this? Right . . . .
It’s “news” if people want to hear about it or have an interest in it. Tiger and his female friends are the most-searched items on Google. Gossip is news. What I or you would choose to do is not the issue. Of course I would try to keep it private. Of course Tiger wants to keep it quiet. But the fact remains that he no longer has a choice.
Now, it may not be appropriate for CNN on a day when the President is giving a war speech, and I applaud them for focusing more on the President, because that’s more important news. But now there are millions of news outlets. It’s news, and it will get out there.
Now it’s simply a matter of tactics for Tiger. What should he say to quell the story and salvage his reputation? He’ll still make tons of money. He’ll always be rich. Of course, this is all trumped by what he should do to protect his wife and his marriage. But there is a price to be paid for not addressing any of this and letting the rumors and publicity seekers fill the void.
In most of these cases, PR people will recommend that you get out there and tell the truth- the whole truth. He hasn’t come close to that yet, so he’ll continue to get pounded in the media (except for those news organizations who are afraid to piss him off).
As for this quote – “Just because he has this public persona doesn’t mean his life has to be an open book. I don’t understand why people feel that entitlement.” Sorry, but that’s just the way things are. It’s the price of celebrity, fair or not.
I’d say he pretty much confirmed the affairs in the first paragraph of the excerpted statement. I don’t think he needs to go into detail about who he slept with and when and how often.
I’d like to know more about why Elin smashed the back of his SUV when he was trapped in the front seat, but I don’t expect him to fess up. The speculation is that it was part of a fight, and if that’s the truth, there really is no upside to coming out and confirming that because it just makes her look bad. If he says that wasn’t the case, no one would believe him anyway.
I agree with Gerardo; for “famous” people, they can’t have it both ways. They certainly enjoy their celebrity status, and all the fame & fortune that they get from it….yet they want to be ‘private’ when any adversity happens. Hey, where do they get their fortune from? Yup, the “non-famous”, or in other words….US!
Public’s opinions on celebrities are almost like buying comapny’s stocks; it’s based a lot on perception, and for them to stay committed to the celeb (ie – buy their products; support their career, etc), then they have a right to know any public knowledge about them. The public, to a lesser degree, still has a vested interest.
My 2 cents at least…..
So where is the line drawn? Should every celebrity’s personal life be totally open to the public or only when something bad happens? And who gets to decide? The media? The public? No, you can’t have it both ways but Tiger is a pretty private guy when it comes to his personal life and this should be no different. He’s not like Madonna or many other celebrities that do outrageous things to draw attention to themselves for publicity. If the reason this is a so-called “news story” is that he makes a lot of money and that’s the price for celebrity, that’s pretty weak. The reason he is famous is because he is a great golfer and has nothing to do with his family. Tiger Woods owes nothing to the public with regards to this incident. If the media had to report on their personal lives the way celebrities do, the “news” would look a lot different today.
And no, I’m not interested in what happened that night but I am interested in why people seem to think Tiger owes them anything.
Well, I can appreciate the other view here. Privacy is important for everyone, including celebrities. Of course they can’t expect it at the levels we get as private citizens, but there is always a line. Ask Erin Andrews.
While Tiger hasn’t acted like Madonna, we now know that he was banging a 21-year old cocktail waitress who wanted to be a reality TV star. Pretty stupid behavior for a global icon. We’ll see what else is revealed. This isn’t the image companies like ATT and Accenture pay big bucks for. Nike will always stick with him unless there’s a serious crime – his brand is totally linked to their golf brand. For other corporations the connection isn’t as close.
We also have an incident where it appears likely that his wife lied to the police about a traffic accident, and Woods avoided talking to the police for three days after scheduling and then breaking two appointments. This is not a completely private matter.
Finally, Tiger can be a real jerk. He often gets a pass for his behavior because he’s such a good golfer, but in this case he can’t hide and he won’t get a pass when one of his mistresses saves a phone recording. That seems like poetic justice.
Kobe’s situation was a lot worse and he rehabbed himself with a championship. A-Rod cheated on his wife (with the world’s biggest skank) and his sport and is more popular than ever. This won’t even be a speed bump for Tiger.
Kobe isn’t making anywhere close to the money he would be making on endorsements without that scandal. He’s certainly rehabbed himself, but he will never get back to where he could have been.
Tiger has already missed his own tournament over this and is basically hiding from the media. I’d say it’s well beyond a speed bump. He can certainly recover, and he has quite a bit of room for error with his staggering yearly take, but he needs to start handling it better. We’ll see how things unfold.
We will forget this just like we forget everything else. As soon as this isn’t “news” anymore and Tiger is back to winning majors, this won’t be brought up again unless something new emerges.
That said, I agree that Tiger will lose some endorsement money here. Look at Vick – he’s now irrelevant but he’ll never recoup the money he lost through endorsements.