Will Tiger Woods' Argument with His Wife, Alleged Affair, and Car Crash Effect His Sponsorships?

In what is surely a very serious concern for his sponsors, TMZ is reporting tonight that Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin, both told police that they had been having a heated argument shortly before Tiger Woods crashed his car. This argument between Tiger Woods and his wife comes on the heels of reports that broke about a day earlier stating that the National Enquirer is ready to publish a bombshell report that Tiger Woods has been having an affair with socialite Rachel Uchitel since June of this year.

However this all turns out, it is certain that Tiger Woods' sponsors will be very uncomfortable for a considerable time. Tiger Woods' sponsors including Accenture, AT&T, EA Sports, Gatorade, Gillette and TLC Laser Eye Center among others, will have to gauge how true and how serious the allegations of Tiger Woods infidelities are and the potential effect on their business, and therefore his value to them.

The question now becomes how serious will this situation turn out to be for Tiger Woods personally, whose sponsors actually pay him far more to endorse their products than he earns playing golf. While financial considerations have presumably long since been much of a problem for Tiger Woods, his sponsors pay him an exorbitant sum; Tiger Woods is estimated to have earned over $750 million in endorsements alone since he began his professional career in 1996.

In many ways, the money he makes from his sponsors is as much of his legacy as his golf. It is no secret that Tiger Woods aspires to be, and almost certainly will become, the first $1 billion athlete in terms of endorsements. While Lebron James may someday pass him, it has been held as a certainty that Tiger Woods would easily pass the $1 billion mark in endorsements and continue to climb.

However, with the week that Tiger Woods has had, with the perhaps interconnected combination of the allegations of cheating on his wife with Rachel Uchitel and an apparent domestic dispute, his endorsement deals may, at the very least, slowdown.

This is not to suggest that Tiger Woods' sponsors will suddenly dry up overnight. Almost assuredly, Tiger Woods' sponsors will at least initially stand behind Tiger Woods and see what develops. But as many have seen in the past, even a sponsorship juggernaut, which Tiger Woods certainly is, can be slowed by embarrassing personal scandal.