Tiger Woods’ Apology Speech

The Apology

Tiger Woods has “apologized” for his series of affairs that he had in the past although he was married with kids. You may have noticed that I put apologized in quotation marks. That’s because Tiger may have considered his speech apologetic, but nobody else should. The man who everyone thought was above it all, the man who everyone thought could handle the fame and money, and other than his inappropriate raves on the golf course, was pretty much the perfect celebrity in the eyes of many, really wasn’t that above it all after all. It seemed like neither his fame nor his money had gone to his head... and then came black friday, when his car crashed into a tree and somehow triggered a slew of women coming out and saying that they had an affair with Tiger.

Heartfelt Speech

But back to the speech. Before the press conference even started, it was obvious that he would be reading off lawyer written notes so as not to 
tarnish his reputation even more by writing it himself or, God forbid, winging it on the spot and actually speaking from the heart. No, instead, Tiger read a speech that his high paid lawyers obviously wrote, and he said it as such - absolutely no emotion. For over ten minutes, Tiger Woods stood up at the podium and talked like a robot, in a halting, monotone voice.

Where Was the Victim?

To make matters worse for Tiger, his wife, Elin, wasn’t even present at the conference. In order to compensate for her absence and try to resurrect the public’s view of him as a sensitive human being, after speaking, Tiger went up to his mom, sitting in the front row, and gave her a unemotional, obviously staged hug, so that he could still be seen as the light hearted family man that he once was portrayed as. For those Jews out there, you will understand this metaphor: Remember when you were getting ready for your bar/bat mitzvah and the Rabbi would tell you “Here is where you are going to stand when I take the Torah out of the arc, then you will walk here with it and then read it here”? That is pretty much what Tiger’s consultants probably told Tiger when he was getting ready for his speech: “Tiger, first you are going to go up to the podium and read the speech you paid us sooooo much money to write, when you are done speaking, you are going to pause and look at the camera, finally, the icing on the cake, you are going to walk up to your mother and give her a hug.”

Mom’s Compassion

News Flash! Tiger’s mom’s forgiveness of her son means nothing in this circumstance. It isn’t the forgiveness of his mom he should be asking for, it is that of Elin’s he should be seeking. Most moms are supportive and will be with their son’s through thick and thin, but is wives can be and should be different, especially when it comes to infidelity. You can cheat on your wife, but you can’t cheat on your mom, and that’s where the mother/son hug means nothing after a press conference such as Tiger’s. I am in no position to say whether or not Elin will/should stay with Tiger and therefore will not give my opinion on that, but I can say good for her for not going to the press conference and standing up there with Tiger like a Stepford Wife, acting like everything was OK.