Update: November 30, 2009 1:00 p.m. PST: Tiger Woods has announced on his own website that he will not take part in his own celebrity golf tournament tomorrow and will not play any golf tournaments for at least the rest of the year.
Update: November 30,2009 12:00 p.m. PST: RadarOnline.com reports: Tiger Woods argued with his wife and stormed from the family home saying she had “ruined Thanksgiving” dinner. The local sheriff’s office report says Woods was unconscious for six minutes on the ground in front of his home after his “traffic accident” Friday morning.
November 29, 2009
He has a million dollar golf swing, but he has just gone bankrupt as a husband, father and man. Tiger Woods has super-human golf-talent but the same faults as mere mortals. And that’s too bad. America already suffers from acute “hero deficit” syndrome. We need more heroes, not more disappointment from our public figures.
Here’s what has happened: Two days before Thanksgiving, the National Enquirer published a story detailing Tiger Woods’ affair with a 34-year-old night club crawler named Rachel Uchitel. Ms. Uchitel apparently has made some sort of a career of lap-dancing well-known married men and then ratting them out to the tabloids. She is “Oochie-Coochie and Tell,” you might say. The Enquirer says it has personally documented Ms. Uchitel’s travels to Los Angeles and Australia for Tiger tetes.
(Let’s just take a moment here to imagine how Thanksgiving dinner went at the Woods’.)
Around 2:30 a.m. Friday morning, (in other words, about 8 hours after the presumed pumpkin pie and coffee,) the Enquirer reports Elin and Tiger Woods said they were arguing about the National Enquirer story. Somehow, Tiger ended up with a bleeding, scratched face, unconscious on the ground outside his home, after he in his Escalade somehow had backed out his driveway into a fire hydrant and a tree. Elin Woods had apparently taken one of Tiger’s golf clubs and smashed out a back window.
There were reports the Woods’ each admitted to police they had argued before the “traffic accident” at O-dark-hundred, but then they took it back. Then Ms. Uchitel hired an attorney. Tiger called his.
No doubt in anticipation of the legal crap-storm this would create, the Enquirer’s Barry Levine told Fox News’ Kim Guilfoyle this weekend that the paper’s sources have taken and passed polygraph tests. Levine says reporters followed Ms. Uchitel up the elevators to the same floor where the golf star was staying. And, says Levine, the National Enquirer has more on the affair that it hasn’t published ….yet.
It used to be that the National Enquirer was considered a trashy tabloid suitable only for furtive peeks at the grocery checkout. The plain truth is, the National Enquirer is a tabloid that has been absolutely correct about recent scandals involving well-known figures. The National Enquirer has demonstrated the courage to cover stories the national media ignores, hides, minimalizes, denies or fears.
For example:
The National Enquirer broke the story that Democrat John Edwards had fathered a child with a mistress as he was running for president on a “family values” platform. Edwards had two children at the time with his wife, who was battling breast cancer and campaigning for him.
Edwards denied the story, just as Tiger Woods is denying now. John Edwards had a posse of publicists doing focus groups, he had campaign workers writing support checks to the “other woman,” he had a friend claim to be father to the baby, he had his cancer-stricken wife making appearances on talk shows to defend him. John Edwards was done in politics, but hubris and narcissism kept him circling the drain way too long.
Time went by but the Enquirer was right. Edwards now admits the affair, his DNA claims the baby and he even supposedly has moved the “other woman” to the neighborhood, to the anger and chagrin of his sick wife. Edwards is now the subject of a grand jury investigation into how his campaign funds may have been illegally funneled to his mistress.
The National Enquirer contributed truthful, controversial breaking stories when it was discovered that President Clinton was involved in sexual liaisons with a student intern at the White House.
Tiger certainly isn’t asking me for any advice; he has a very high-paid posse of attorneys and agents circling tightly around him right now. Due to my unique combination of professional (broadcast investigative reporter and anchorperson) and life experiences (coach, soccer/swim/water polo mom, two kids in 4-year college, divorced from a husband who cheated), I am appointing myself prosecutor, judge, jury and Tiger-mom. I am also absolutely right about this.
Tiger has publicly humiliated his wife, risked his children’s future happiness, insulted the professional golf world and the fans who adore him, and jeopardized his professional endorsement contracts.
Tiger Woods’ reaction to this bad news is worse than the facts themselves.
Because it is apparently his distraught, angry wife who cut and scratched his face in an argument (who knows, maybe she also hit him in the head with the golf club) she and her husband have been refusing to meet with the Windemere Florida police department and Florida Highway Patrol. For 3 days they have hidden out in their home, turning away the cops.
Today there was a Woods attorney at their home, doing doorman duty. If Woods’ facial cuts or bruises were to be seen by a police investigator, and have obviously been made by a human hand and not a car accident, the police would be required to arrest Elin Woods on domestic abuse charges.
TMZ.coms report the local police are now seeking a warrant for Tiger Woods’ hospital records to see if his injuries were caused by his wife.
Ms. Uchitel has now hired Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred, who is well-known for her advocacy of miffed mattress mavens (such as Amber Frey, mistress to pregnant wife-murderer Scott Peterson.)
Fanhouse.com says Tiger Woods has made more money than any professional athlete ever in just 12 years. In 2010, he was on track to pass one billion dollars in earnings. The article says 87% percent of his income comes from endorsements from sports products companies.
Tiger Woods is clearly placing his endorsement income ahead of his family. Judging by the way he is dodging this sleazy embarrassment, he is no doubt being counseled he can “ride it out” and avoid being dropped by sponsors for some violation of a morals clause in his contracts.
It is speculation on my part, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Tiger Woods is paying Rachel Uchitel’s attorney to attack the National Enquirer story. He has the financial motivation to do so. The young lady would be wise not to sign any documents under penalty of perjury containing denials of an affair and risk having the Enquirer pull out the photos, video or whatever else it has as proof.
The true mark of a man is not how gracious he can be when he is slipping into a green jacket after winning the Masters, it is whether he deals truthfully, quickly and appropriately with adversity. A man who makes millions on his image as a clean-cut family man cannot let fame and money or manipulating women take his eye off the ball. What the Enquirer found was not a one-night affair, it was daily phone-calling and multiple trysting-locations over several months. Woods has issued a vague public statement today.
This story wouldn’t have come out had Ms. Uchitel not been flapping her pie hole to her friends. But she is just being herself, which is, a publicity slut. Tiger Woods, with his self-absorbed self-preservation acts, may push this young woman into legal troubles she had not envisioned. At the same time, his own wife could face abuse charges if his face goes public before the swelling stops or the cuts scab over.
Tiger Woods, despite his amazing God-given talent, his perfect complexion and teeth, and immaculate Nike-wear, has just made a cluster-muck of his life. If Tiger Woods had spent the past 12 years making money on the tour as a booty-grabbing, snoot-snorting wild thing, this “Oochi-gate” would be expected and excusable and not a “–gate” story.
However, Tiger Woods has reaped the mighty benefits of being a perfect golfer and a perfect person. He must suffer the consequences of his public/private disconnect.
It is all very unsavory and disappointing and it is why Tiger Woods needs to just go away. He is discredited. His priorities are out of line. He needs to hide out, hunker down and spend the rest of his years apologizing to his family and donating to charity. He becomes more distasteful with each move he makes right now.
He needs to beg his wife not to divorce him so that his children can grow up in an intact family. Because his children are still very young, they are thankfully going to be unaware of their father’s flying leap from the pedestal.
If Tiger Woods does all of the above right now and is also very lucky, by the time his children can read a newspaper, they won’t find Dad and Miss “Oochie-Coochie” on the front page.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Phil Laudicina commented on your link: “Over this? Nah. He’s just another guy who got caught cheating.”
Michael Kepler commented on his status: “if those endorsement clauses are in a contract then it is the right of those endorser to drop him, but for us to say he should resign from golf is nuts to me. He is a golfer. Just like Rush Limbaugh shouldn’t have been asked to resign from the radio because he is a talk show host. I have no problem with endorsers dropping somebody because of their image because that is their product they are endorsing. “
Peg Conroy commented on your link: “Myself, I don’t give a fig about this Tiger kerfuffle.”
Djack Height commented on your link: “You know, I was a bit cautious about your article because of the title and the fact that I am unfamiliar with the Woods story (a bit too dramatic and greta van sustereny for me). However after just reading your article, you’ve done a great job really bringing the whole story together and making your case. I might opt to wait and see how Woods handles the whole ordeal before passing judgement myself, but I agree that we need more Heros out there that we can look to with confidence. Good work and thanks for the good information!”
Thanks Djack. I am not have a moralistic “knee-jerk” reaction. To be a true family man, Tiger needs to chill out for a good long while. Put his family first, not the endorsements. He has his work cut out for him.
Donna Marie Ruby commented on your link: “LOL! I don’t even want to bother with this story it is a distraction from what is happening in America, recall the liberal chant never waste a good crisis.”
Denise Mullarkey commented on your link: “I figured he had since he got married – he is no longer a positive force for the dignified sport of golf”
Kimberly Smith Adams commented on your link: “so should most of the NFL, NBA, and Baseball…. I understand what you are saying but what about the crap that is in other sports…?”
Jeni Dixon commented: “His personal life is the business of anyone who has made him a billionare. He didn’t have a problem with the publics interest in his life when he sold his family photos to all themagazines when his children were born. It’s a double edged sword. Live by it. Die by it. “
Nick Lucko commented on your link: “More distraction from what really matters. So what if his wife beat him up with a golf club?”
@uncoverage It’s because he kept misplacing his balls and couldn’t decided between a driver or a putter!
Gene comments: Gee, how soon the story has twisted–I thought his wife was the baddie!!!
If they have a problem, none of my business, let them solve it.
Red State commented on your link: “9 Iron – poor club selection for the lie…”
Joseph Bennett commented on your link: “Dislike.. He should retire when his golf skills diminish, not because of some personal problems.. “
Greg Chapin commented on your link: “Impeach Tiger!”
Harvey Lipsman commented on your activity: “I think tour blog on Tiger was briliantly written! I did not agree with the conclusion”
Gregory Shirk commented on your status: “Man that kid’s stupid! They never taught him about women at Stanford. Women 101.Don’t kiss and tell. Don’t betray them(especially your wife). Respect women do not exploit them, they are not toys, guess he knows that now! Hahaha!”
I think your blog needs some updating. I would love to read more about this.
GR8 Info, what are other good sites to confirm this info?
I think we understand now the meaning of Tiger’s privacy. It was all a fraud. I am not interested in watching him on TV anymore and I won’t. He has enough of our $ through endorsements pretending to be a family man when he wasn’t. I don’t care for Charles Barkley but @ least he doesn’t pretend to be someone who he isn’t to get more endorsements. I just wish he would exit the PGA but we all know he will be back to mentor our kids, huh???
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