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Originally Posted by oberon_1
What does America want from Tiger Woods and other celebrities? Tiger Woods is a golfer, not the Pope. As long as he didn't brake the law, what's the issue?
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They want him to be perfect; to win each tournament; to do the right thing in a professional, mature, and moral way; to break all kind of records; to a counterbalance to all that is wrong with celebrity.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oberon_1
Tiger Woods is a golfer, not the Pope.
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Precisely. He is someone we can all be, hence the willingly to project onto him all of our hopes and aspirations. Were he the Pope, we would treat him differently.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oberon_1
As long as he didn't brake the law, what's the issue?
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Simple, with the news, the air in the Tiger bubble was let out. He went from our sense of the frontier of our potential to a supremely guy, but one that represents among the worst of our moral potential. We went from poster child of "what we can be" to "a common celebrity."
Think of this in financial terms, the most important of which is his "price." Now that the bubble has burst, his price in our eyes has plummeted as fast as that of an internet stock. Where we were once willing to price him as a new technology start-up where the sky was the limit, reality has set in. He is now in the process of being repriced using traditional metrics. The result of this return to earth is that he will be judged like any other public figure who has cheated on a young wife and dipped the wick with an assortment of skanks, whores and wannabe celebrities. My feeling is that his price is far from bottoming out.
Without the air of the bubble, he is a guy who hits 50% of fairways, who throws tantrums like many a gifted tennis brat, and who no longer causes us to gasp. The will longer get the benefit of the doubt in interviews. Expect the young sharks to come out of the water, for the forces that blew up the bubble to ginormous size have now only started the process of deflation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oberon_1
1) Why do people care what he does in his private life?
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Easy. He life has never been fully private since his Dad decided to go the route of the O'Hairs and Marinoviches of the world and "manufacture" the perfect golfer. It was being a unique public figure that drove him to receive such public adulation and the wealth that accrued, not his private life, nor really his golf. Had he been dreadfully boring, had not won with such flair, and had not been so masterful with the media, he would have never received such incredible adulation.
Younger people forget how hated and derided Jack Nicklaus was. Today, he is given tremendous respect. But the guy was hated or disliked as the anti-Arnold Palmer, despite piling up all kinds of records. In great contrast, Tiger was treated as the second coming--not for his golf, which of course was exciting, but because of his style and persona that transcended golf. Well, that transcencion is history. All that remains is golf. And thus the great repricing begins.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oberon_1
1) Why do people care what he does in his private life? 2) What these women who stepped forward want? (Aside from money and 10 min fame. As far as I know nobody accesses him of rape).
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Like groupies, they want a piece of the action. LIke groupies, they want him. And like gold-digging whores, they wanted their sugar daddy and/or cash. Already one has been paid $2-$4million for her silence. And the other 14? And Elin? You had better believed that each is lining up to get her stake. If denied, expect HUGE bidding for a tell all.
So along with the great pricing will come a great reallocation of wealth. My guess is that when the final bean has been counted, 25% of his current net worth and 70-80% of his future potential net worth will be gone. The former figure is not hard to imagine. The latter has just begun. And this assumes no change in his golfing margin over the rest of the golf world, something I doubt he will maintain.
What separated Tiger from the pack was his drive and focus. The question now is that being seen as a sleezebag, not worthy of dating one's daughter or being a risky play as a corporate rep, he can no longer assume the obeyance of the golfing fans. Without their support, will he have the same drive? Knowing he and no one else caused the self-destruction of his marriage and literally threatening the health of his wife and kids (God knows what diseases they were at risk for, including AIDS), can he remain keep his legendary focus on Jack's number of majors? On winning against guys, many of whom will no longer respect him as a person? Can he stay focused, when he can no longer assume people will let him get away with bratty antics or Steve Williams being so rough with the crowd? I do not think so.
Whereas, he seemed to be a shoe-in to smash Sam Snead's career PGA titles record and Jack's majors record, now, they will be a career away. Expect more cat calls, harsher media treatment, booing at his use of expletives, zero slacks from golfers, and the inevitable media search for the new saviour of golf and sport to significantly raise the challenge. But unlike in other competitive sports, golf is not about beating another guy, but beating the worse inner demons regarding oneself so that the ball and go where it is supposed to go on the course.
Don't cry for Tiger. He will still lead a life where his net worth should stay comfortably above $450 million. But rejoice that he is no longer larger than life. As his bubble deflates, the prices of other things important in life will go up, things that for too long where artificially suppressed by our willingness to build the bubble that was Tiger Woods.
S.
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