Word: tigers
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Bill Saporito: I don't think he's going to lose very many endorsements. Sure, he has been revealed as a fraud, but Michael Jordan, another big sports fraud and the very role model for Tiger, is still selling underwear (in a commercial with Charlie Sheen!). Tiger is famous for going OB and then hitting spectacular recovery shots. Follow that metaphor...
...popularity with women. Fourth, he's a Stanford-educated golfer who supposedly did everything right. His image was premised on class, elegance, aspiration. He took flak just for being seen swearing on the course. I think this is going to be damaging, at least initially. (See pictures of Tiger Woods' best victory moments...
...about Stanford. (Though I doubt he'll be invited back for many more ceremonial coin tosses anytime soon.) There are probably only two athletes in recent history who approached Tiger's global, iconic status: Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan. But I think the social import of both Ali and Jordan was different from Tiger's, in part because of the sports they played. Boxing and basketball are populated with athletes from poor and working-class backgrounds. And over the past several decades, both sports have been dominated by African Americans. That's never been true of golf - it's still...
...forget Pelé, another poor kid who became a global legend. No question that Tiger has revolutionized golf as a sporting event - you can see it in the television ratings. But by some respects, he'll only become a bigger attraction. Tiger's on the cover of People. He's now moving up in the Jon and Kate-Brad and Angelina celebrity solar system. You know what happens next: an appearance on Oprah with his wife Elin, national contrition. And even bigger ratings at his next tournament. Unless, of course, Mrs. Woods throws...
...right that public fascination with Tiger will be even more intense the next time he steps on the golf course or appears on Oprah. (Which won't happen until those "lacerations" fully heal.) It will be a ratings bonanza. But he'll never quite be what he once was. He won't be speaking at any more presidential inaugurations. And in some ways, I think this might put even more pressure on him to re-establish his dominance over the competition. His failure to win a major this year obviously didn't damage his place in our corporate-cultural pantheon...