Saturday, December 12, 2009

Weekend (Very) Quickie: Ingram, Tiger

Congratulations to Mark Ingram on winning the 2009 Heisman. He had my (fictitious) vote. I was disappointed to see Ndamukong Suh finish 4th - thought he had a shot at Top 3.

Tim Tebow finished 5th -- who were the 43 voters who gave him a 1st-place vote? I mean: Even *I* wouldn't do that.

I have a few thoughts on Tiger, but I'm still putting them together. Definitely by Monday morning's column. The gist is this:

After continuously screwing up how he has handled -- and is handling -- this, Tiger finds a way to screw it up even further.

He should be playing golf TODAY. He should be making himself available to all of it -- the jeers, the jokes, the sycophantic sports media coverage.

He needs to let the sports media provide some ballast against the tabloids -- sports media is dying to talk about Tiger, just anything BUT this scandal.

And he needs to let everyone take their shots -- and punch themselves to exhaustion: Rope-a-dope. It would be painful for a few weeks... then there'd be nothing left to say.

Instead: He hides, thinking he can out-last this. When this broke, in its first day, I thought Tiger was big enough to pull it off. He's not. He needs to get crushed to his face, so he can rebuild.

Quick story: I'm at the store today and I walk past the sports-drink aisle. And then I see the Gatorade Tiger-branded bottle. And I chuckled. Then I pointed it out to the random person standing next to me, and THEY chuckled.

Not sure why he's prolonging this for himself.

-- D.S.

2 comments:

The Fist said...

In all this talk of marketing strategy and image, you're missing one possibility ... what if he really IS trying to save his marriage? If he really is (and with his mother and mother-in-law close by, there is every chance he really is), then playing out image control is the last thing on his mind.

In a way, I feel sorry for all the sports people who automatically criticize him for his behavior in this. It's as if none of them even considers he might have a motivation other than marketing.

The Fist said...

There seems to be a glaring hole in the reasoning of sports-following folks. Has it occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, Tiger is trying to save his marriage?

Elin leaving seems a forgone conclusion to so many people. But think for just one second: would a man trying to save his marriage agree to do things to show his sincerity?

You know, like stay home for a few months rather than go on the road where all the cheating happened? Like showing family matters more than image, by ignoring damage control in favor of penance?

Please, DS, stick with your usual mode -- thinking it through from both inside and outside the sports box!