When a Tiger Falls...

Scriptural Reflection
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. ~ Proverbs 16:18 (NRSV)

It is a tremendous understatement to say that Tiger Woods is having a rough holiday season. Mr. Woods' downward spiral began in late November when he crashed his car outside his Florida mansion. Under an increasing cloud of suspicion, the local police issued Tiger a citation for careless driving and a $164 fine roughly five days later. Ever since his late-night "car accident" during Thanksgiving, the pro golfer's legendary marital infidelity has fueled a media firestorm for tabloids and talk shows for roughly a month already. Even as Tiger's list of mistresses has continued to grow beyond comprehension (currently 14 and counting), his wife, Elin Nordegren, reportedly "is not going to file for divorce immediately" although she has been sighted without her wedding ring and has retained a notable divorce lawyer who is nullifying the couple's pre-nuptial agreement as well as securing her custody of their children. In a year that witnessed the violent meltdown of Rihanna and Chris Brown's relationship, the heavily publicized marital woes of Jon and Kate Gosselin (of TLC's Jon & Kate Plus 8 fame), and South Carolina governor Mark Sanford's "hiking the Appalachian trail" all the way to his extramarital affair with his Argentinian mistress in Buenos Aires, Tiger's outrageous exploits as an adulterer have surpassed those salacious stories by leaps and bounds. Even more alarming, this episode has marked the end of the media's love affair with Tiger Woods. Once considered the most mild-mannered and congenial of all Black male athletes of his generation, this fiasco reveals that his public persona has been a carefully crafted façade. Until now, that is...

As Mr. Woods faces this undeniably difficult moment in both his personal and professional life, there are three main issues that he ought to address as he prepares to face his future. First, amid the great controversy that has besieged him during these trying times, Tiger's great accomplishments in the world of professional golf are rapidly being overshadowed by his his sexual misconduct. In the last week, even though Mr. Woods has received acclaim as the "Athlete of the Decade" by the Associated Press as well as being voted PGA's "Player of the Year" by his fellow golfers, these groups practically had to apologize to the American public for paying attention to and acknowledging his dominance of his chosen sport for his entire adult life. Instead of being able to enjoy these greatly deserved accolades for his triumphant years as a pro golfer, this recognition is going to be obscured from now on by the titillating nature of his sexual misadventures.

Next, even though Mr. Woods has spent the bulk of his life trying to transcend his being identified racially as "Black", the media has pretty much "blackened" Tiger whether he likes it or not. Since sharing his childhood term for his hybrid cultural roots,“Cablinasian,”on The Oprah Winfrey Show twelve years ago, Woods has purposefully tried to avoid the messy complexity of Blackness during the last half-century since Brown v. Board of Education. As can be imagined, there is much discussion that is needed regarding how Tiger's current woes are affecting his notion of being Cablinasian nowadays. Whenever an African American male celebrity reaches iconic status within our society--for example Mike Tyson, Magic Johnson, Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Eddie Murphy, and Kobe Bryant among others--their public shame and tragic downfall were plugged directly into presumed notions of racial inferiority and sexual immorality of Black men. All of these men were hovering at the heights of their respective fields before revelations that made them less desirable as role models for young Black men who are already sorely lacking heroes. Moreover, in an interesting twist of fate, Tiger's umpteen mistresses were able to accomplish what his PGA competitors could never do: force the world's first Black golf champion to voluntarily sideline himself from the sport he loves during the prime of his life.

Finally, as more details of his adulterous affairs are revealed, there is a steady demonstration of both self-denial and self-destruction by Mr. Woods. According to the confessions of his mistresses, Tiger's repeated decisions to engage in unprotected sex without consideration of sexually transmitted diseases is reckless behavior with potentially devastating consequences. The inability for this otherwise intelligent, successful, and self-possessed young man to lose sight of the countless risks of such sexual misconduct is too severe to be accidental. It is very little wonder that Tiger's recent dilemma has prompted a mounting level of clamor about the current state of marriage and monogamy within our society. Like too many folks, Mr. Woods chased after empty sexual conquests because true love demanded more than he could give to in his life, including intimacy, inspiration, and introspection. Put another way, there is no way to love anyone else if first you do not cherish and love the God in you. Therefore, as Mr. Woods takes his self-imposed sabbatical from the PGA golf tour, he needs to work on his personal faults such as immaturity, insecurity, and lack of integrity if he ever hopes to restore his reputation and regain his place in the sun. If he can allow himself to be vulnerable enough to own up to his own failing--as we all must do daily--Tiger Woods can rebuild his life in such a way to move beyond humiliation to humility.