Weak Side Late Assignment: Our Golden Boy Falls

I’m a little late to the party, but still want to briefly discuss the latest transgressions of Monsieur Eldrick “Tiger” Woods.  Well, actually I will probably avoid addressing the “transgressions” themselves (quite the Bible-speak of him); the cliff dive of one of the few Golden Boys of modern sports is where I’d like to spend my word allotment today.

We’ve had plenty of athletes (and politicians, and movie stars, and otherwise rich people, and on…) with such “transgressions” revealed publicly.  Most people are at the point where we just shrug their shoulders – “well, what else did we expect from him/her?”  Almost all individuals who find themselves in enough of the public eye to warrant a news frenzy – for what many would deem a personal indiscretion – have worked over years, even decades, as the centerpiece of very active PR campaigns to develop a very calculated reputation with the American public.

Outside of whether you believe said transgressions are personal, semi-personal, personal-with-the-following-exceptions, or otherwise, it is this type of firebombing of public trust that makes the many transgressions of Tiger Woods so disappointing.  Warren Buffett once stated: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

Now we have a case study unfolding in front of our very eyes.

We Americans are trusting of our public idols, probably too much so.

The loss of public trust, of course, can come in a variety of ways (I’ll blanket these and get all metaphysical on you for the next few paragraphs).  Marital infidelity is just one of many ways to shake the public’s trust, albeit an increasingly regular one.

Our initial responses to infringements of public trust – of any type – are typically strong, but over the long run, tend only to be glancing blows.  The stigma (“murderer” … “cheater” … “wife beater” …) tends to last, while public trust can often be miraculously rebuilt.  The Ray Lewis stigma is periodically mentioned (although he was acquitted) as he roams the football field.  Bill Clinton’s approval ratings are higher than just about any post-WWII president.  Chris Brown’s record is still going platinum.  Even Richard Nixon seriously contemplated another run for public office, whether by ego or a semblance of public forgiveness or probably some combination of both.

Don’t fool yourself, though, in thinking that these public recoveries are easy or quick.  Much of the population will never change their opinion, even while putting up with their recovery.  But eventually, we collectively tend to move on.

Let’s take other public trust infractions.  Steroids, for instance.  The stigma still lingers for most athletes who even stepped foot on the diamond during baseball’s so-called Steroid Era.  Meanwhile, people seem to be beginning to come to terms with it, or at least built up enough of a shield of numbness.  Mark McGwire will do a couple of press conferences as the hitting coach for the Cardinals and before you know it, he’s in the Hall of Fame.  Trust me.

Alex Rodriguez is still playing, even taking home championships.  Some booed, some cheered, and the boos still linger, but they are getting much quieter.  The American public may not have forgiven everyone involved, but seem to be in the slow process of “giving in” to the fact that whatever happened, happened.

Many of us will never quite forgive the athletes/owners/commissioner involved, but we’ll eventually get over it.  These athletes/owners/commissioner may be “cheaters” or at least enablers in our minds, yet we’ll still come to the ballpark.  It was a very common abuse of the era – a painful one, no doubt – but the fact that “everybody was doing it” drives an expectation that “everybody was doing it” and as more and more allegations emerge for Lee Smith or Brady Anderson or whomever, we are simply numb and say, “well, that makes sense.”

Now, back to Tiger.  The linger of the stigma, if you will, is much longer and more harsh for public figures who built a relationship with the public based on the trust that they were “better than the rest”, on-and-off the field.  We could hear thousands of allegations regarding “untrustworthiness” about players like Glenallen Hill and Jay Buhner and it wouldn’t be nearly as painful as if we heard Cal Ripken had put the needle in his bum a time or two.

The Tiger Woods allegations are so painfully frustrating for the American public because we trusted him.  We really did.  He was different, you see.  Tiger was the kid next door who made good through hard work and good parents.  He was the icon representing one of the reasons why we encourage participation in sports in the first place: That sports build character, work ethic, teamwork, and even (imagine this!) modesty in the face of success.

Now, most of us are throwing him in the category of tabloid trash, alongside Jon & Kate.

Here’s another comparison, just for the sake of it.  I gave you the correlation between Tiger and Cal – the “Golden Boy” brands, if you will.  Let’s take Michael Jordan.

Jordan is arguably the best athlete of the modern era.  His accomplishments on the basketball court are unmatched; Tiger is the only person from another sport who even comes close.  But Jordan’s reputation and relationship with the public was primarily developed on-the-court.  Everybody knew that Michael had a girl in every city.  He admitted to gambling often, just not on basketball games.  Jordan’s image was based almost purely on his athletic talent, not some kind of PR campaign to make him look like the King of Character.  Simply put, he wasn’t.

In comparison, Tiger’s PR effort has pitched him as the kid next door who worked hard, got a few breaks, and now is the “good guy” – Golden Boy, if you will – in an industry with inner-workings that most of us shiver at.  But after all of this, most of us are now shivering at him.

When the gap between real versus public personae is significant enough to not just disappoint, but shock – that’s when recovery in the eye of the public is the long and painful process described by Mr. Buffett.  We expected Michael Jordan to be a great athlete, keeping us wide-eyed and tuned-in to every waking moment on the court.  But we learned quickly not to expect him to be Mother Theresa.

Yet we expected – and were led to believe, in a very calculated manner – that Tiger was more than just a great athlete.  He was the good son, the good father, the good husband – the all-around “good guy”, even – who stayed from the limelight because he was humble, not because he was acting entirely to the contrary when we weren’t watching him.

What blind and trusting fools we were.

***

All that said, a couple more brief thoughts:

A)  This isn’t going to blow over quickly, particularly with Tiger refusing to give any context into what happened the night he crashed his car and the many nights before when it appears his transgressions took place in cities around the world.  Typically – I’ll use politicians, the masters of PR as an example – you want to get out as much information as practical in one news cycle, let it flash, then sizzle.  The media will continue to pace the gate at the Tiger/Shaq compound until they get more information, and the public will continue to be interested until they have a better idea of exactly what happened that night and who the “real” Tiger Woods is.

Unfortunately for Tiger and his crisis response team, it seems that the gap between the real versus public Tiger Woods is significant enough to consume not just one but many, many news cycles.  The first sponsors and major media held advertisements in prime time featuring Tiger yesterday; expect many more to follow.

B)  On that note, what will Nike do (WWND)?  If they take the same approach as with Barry Bonds, they’ll stand by their man, at risk of significant peril.  But, if Nike decides to head in another direction – effectively losing years of investment and letting the Tiger Woods brand go the way of Lehman Brothers – then we can assume that the “transgressions” of Tiger Woods are not only serious, but the evidence is plentiful enough to scare off one of the world’s most loyal sponsors.

C)  Imagine, assuming Tiger plays again, when Woods and Phil Mickelson step onto the tee box for the first time next spring.  Over the prior year, Phil has stood side-by-side with his wife as she underwent horrifying chemo treatment, missing several tournaments and returning for a shot at the U.S. Open that fell short only on a rainy and rare Monday.  He isn’t an athlete on the once-in-a-generation level like Tiger, but people love him.  Meanwhile, over the prior year, Tiger became the center of a media frenzy that effectively imploded his public image like almost no one we have ever seen.  At that point, Elin may or may not be with him.  When he stands there, you can bet things far worse than “get ‘em Tiger” will be shouted by people along the rope line.