Tiger Woods and the Road Ahead

2009 will no doubt be remembered as the year of the Sports Sex Scandal, as sordid details of athletes, coaches, and media personalities made the sports pages look more like the tabloids. Certainly, the details vary from the alleged multiple "transgressions" for Tiger Woods to the extortion case with Pick Pitino and from the fatal attraction case of Steve Phillips to the affair and murder of Steve McNair, but one thing holds true; these men have been branded as pariah by the public for the secret lives they lead.

For his part, Woods' fall is an exceptionally difficult one for fans to swallow. He was the player that stood above controversy and was a pillar of hard-work and accomplishment. He came from a strong family environment that nurtured him and provided him with a moral compass that many of today's athletes don't have. He appeared to carry those same family traits into his own life, but that facade came crashing down as news broke this weekend of multiple affairs, leading to a late-night argument with his wife, Elin Norgegren, and a car crash outside of the golfer's palatial estate. Now Woods faces the Arduous task of putting the names of Rachel Uchitel, Jaimee Grubbs, and Kalika Moquin behind him and rebuilding the Tiger Woods empire, the Tiger Woods name, and, most importantly, rebuilding his family.

There's no doubt that the task of picking up the pieces is easier said than done, but for an athlete of his stature, it is doable. For his part, Woods should look at the example set by another member of the straying superstar alumni and use Kobe Bryant as a shining example. Bryant, as many remember, was accused and eventually acquitted of rape in Colorado, after a fling with a hotel employee. Now, Bryant may not have shed the image of a cocky, headstrong player on the court, but he has managed to put the pieces of his marriage back together and no longer walks the streets with the tag of "accused rapist". Bryant has also managed to rebuild his marketability, regaining many of the endorsements that he lost due to the charges levied against him.

Granted, Tiger Woods doesn't face the same sort of uphill battle as Bryant did, but given just the few years difference in the acts, Woods no doubt has to win his under much more scrutiny than did Bryant. The information age has created an incredibly large desire for information now, and the juicier, the better. Woods learned that first hand when he chose to try and keep his incident under wraps. There is no doubt that some PR firm will jump all over the opportunity to remake Tiger Woods, and that may be just what he needs to make people forget, but if Tiger wants his family back in order, he'll be best served to revert back to the private, family man that we all thought he was in the first place. Only through putting forth the same dedication to making his marriage work as he does on the golf course will he have a hope seeing his way out of this mess. He's had practice pretending to be a good family man; now is the time to put into play.

In the end, this is not a club that Tiger wants to be a part of and he'd be best served to work his way out.