Americans are strange beings when it comes to sports. Not because we build athletes up, everybody does that. We, and the British, take as much pleasure in tearing them down. However, the British let them lie (Compare the treatment of American athletes to English fullback John Terry who bedded his teammates girlfriend: no apology and no forgiveness. Jokes and shame galore followed by piss-poor form from Terry for Chelsea.), and we insist that we must redeem our heroes and build them up again. So, athletes publicly apologize for transgressions that are obvious, unless they are unpleasant people to begin with where apology would never be accepted (see Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens). The necessity for apologies in grown from a naivety towards the lives of athletes. The most blatant example was my fifth-grade class cheering when OJ was acquitted; it was obvious that OJ was a murderer, but we couldn't come to grips with Nordberg renting a Hertz in Chicago after he murdered his wife in LA. We're shocked when athletes risk their health and integrity to hit a few dingers and make more money, despite knowing that it was both legal and at the time cheering their exploits.
When a young man stands in front of us and tells us he thought the rules didn't apply to him, guess what: they don't. Tiger Woods can do whatever the hell he wants within the law, and only Elin should be concerned with it. But we want all of our athletes to be Payne Stewart, Cal Ripken Jr., or Larry Bird, white and uncontroversial. Tiger was the exception, but not because he was black. He was the exception because he was a robot, a man who never gave any feelings unless we photographed his backswing. Why should a man who has earned over a billion dollars with his hard work and determination be judged for overdoing his social life? Perhaps the problem is that he never lived properly. He's been on a regimen for so long, that he skipped important steps, and then found himself married with a family because that is how life is supposed to progress. However, he is an athlete and isn't human, and thus we condemn him for his faults. By destroying him personally, we are taking claim for his success, which is highly illogical.
Every successful athlete is so because they work hard. We applaud this work ethic as a penultimate version of the American spirit, and when they show signs of slacking we attack them. They are, in a sense, no different than a race horse. Sure, we pay them lots of money, but in return we ask for their bodies, time, and most importantly to dispense with their backgrounds, unless it makes for a good story. For some athletes, this means a departure from the urban lifestyle to a suburban lifestyle we more readily accept. It's why NBA players have to wear suits, and the story of young black men being taken in by white families are glorified. For Tiger, it meant nothing; he was a golfer and that was his identity. So when asked to portray this role, he was already there, but he had another problem. He was never allowed to live life properly as a normal man would. This doesn't mean sleeping around; it implies a level of freedom that making yourself into the best individual athlete in history doesn't afford. What reasoning does one have to be the greatest, if personal gain is not allowed?
His situation doesn't tell all. Another falling from grace occurred with Michael Vick, and his is more formulaic for an athlete. Athlete grows up poor, gets money, takes along poor friends, poor friends and athlete make bad choice, and athlete gets thrown under bus as an example. I'm not saying what he did wasn't wrong; it just is understandable if you value human beings well enough to note their faults. We're appalled that a rich black man had a dog fighting ring, while we have ignored for years that poor people of all races do as well. We think killing animals is a horrific crime, while giving our money to an organization who thinks it's much more humane to kill the animals than to temporarily house them until a home can be found. Every day animals die in fights, little white kids light cats on fire, mistreated animals kill children, and PETA kills animals because it's "humane", yet our pin-up child for animal mistreatment is a rich African-American, hardly a standard case of abuse. If a white man was found to have done the same things as either of these men, it still would be controversial, but an onus is put upon young black men to be not just upstanding, but perfect individuals because white society likes to imply that all young black men are criminals.
To my next point, one of my friends noted that she wouldn't watch the Super Bowl, because athletes are criminals. However, the same laws which govern normal people govern athletes. The same crimes that they commit are committed by thousands of other people in the United States. Her view, more common in women, stems from a deep problem of athletes being thought to be role models. Sure, lots of young boys say they want to grow up to be like a famous athlete, but in reality, how long do these dreams extend? Most young men find the idealistic view of athletes to be a falsehood, as adoration for any human should be. We find their flaws charming, ways to make them personable to losers working 9-5 without their poise and success. Detractors, however, use this as an excuse to chastise us for our fandom. They believe that it isn't possible for us to simultaneously acknowledge the faults of athletes while praising their achievements. I lament that little credit is given to fans which can accept flawed humans. We forgive because we are their harshest critic.
The sports fan doesn't feel betrayed by these athletes with the possible exception of baseball fans who don't know how they feel because they are robots, too. The people who feel betrayed are non-fans (which sometimes overlap with excessive animal love), who think this man used his status to deceive and manipulate women, his wife especially. This bothers me, because I fully believe women to be of equal if not greater intelligence than men, so they don't get to claim manipulation is a male tactic. Flashing money is, but I don't think Tiger Woods goes all Pac-Man. The women had to know who he was, and knowing that knew he was married, this is in an affront to his marriage as large as his actions. In comparison, fans feel betrayed if they already despise the person. Atlanta fans hate Vick, because he ruined the franchise for one year. They also hated John Rocker because he sucked, not because he was a racist douchebag. Production is the name of the game, and as long as you produce we don't care. That's why I don't get the betrayal; if we don't really care, they don't owe us anything.
Aside: After being so harsh upon these men one would think we would judge them more fiercely, but we sometimes give them more credit than is due. Ray Lewis was obviously involved in a murder at a night club in Atlanta, yet a year later he's the Super Bowl MVP and we could care less. Marvin Harrison, as it appears, killed a man in Philadelphia or at least had him killed, after being the best WR of the 00's. When it happened, despite evidence to the contrary, we believed Marvin as we did OJ. Len Bias, died tragically of a cocaine overdose, which we lamented because he was an promising athlete, but we couldn't give two shits for a young black man in the ghetto suffering the same fate.
Note on Tiger rumors: The stories that have come out are some of the strangest ever. First, as a man, I would like to question: If you had a billion dollars, don't you think you could find a mistress as attractive as your wife? This isn't a Tiger thing necessarily, look at a long history of political mistresses and flings. Aren't there attractive women attracted to power, or is their attractiveness power enough? Secondly, a porn star stated that Tiger got her pregnant twice. Now, if I'm understanding this correctly, we have a porn star not on birth control, which is akin to someone saying while riddled with bullet holes, "They've stabbed me." Victimization should stop as soon as publicity becomes involved. The only victim at this point is anyone dumb enough to pay to read about this. Last, I'm pretty sure his wife did hit him and the car with a golf club, but to say so would directly be implicating her with assault. While charges wouldn't result, I think Elin has taken enough shit up to this point having a husband who obviously can't see that she's a freaking Swedish model.
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