Tiger Woods is considered one of the greatest athletes and fiercest competitors of all time. Long before his DUI and divorce scandal, he was also a standard for professionalism, boasting a near-immaculate character on and off the court.
Notably, that could've been the case for the remainder of his career, but a casual encounter with one of his idols may have been a turning point in his life.
In his recent HBO docuseries, former VIP host Tiffany Masters from Vegas shed some light on Tigers' struggles to talk to women:
"We catered to Tiger. We spoiled him, treated him like a prince," Masters said, affirming that they introduced him to multiple women. "In that entourage, Tiger was a bit of a geek. It wasn’t like he was like Mac Daddy, Casanova. Those guys didn’t really have to be themselves, their hosts did all the work."
Then, author Armen Keteyian reveals how Michael Jordan's advice was more than enough for Woods to turn things around:
“Michael, to ever-loving credit, goes, ‘You tell them you’re Tiger Woods,’” Keteyian said. “His ability to live a double-life, it started in Vegas.”
Woods went on to have multiple affairs, with the most infamous one being with nightclub owner Rachel Uchitel.
That affair took a major toll on Woods' reputation, but it's not like Rachel didn't suffer from backlash and criticism as well:
"For the last 10 years I have stayed quiet about this story, but, at this point, I have nothing left to lose. My name hasn't lost the stigma at all. It's always, Rachel Uchitel, Tiger Woods' mistress," Uchitel said.
Sports media personality Bryant Gumbel also criticized how the media handled the situation, once again pointing out how different coverage can be for black and white athletes:
“One of the things spoken in Black households often is when something would happen somebody older than you would say, 'I hope he’s not Black. I hope he’s not Black.' Because you knew it would give fuel and fodder to those people who wanted to see you as much less than them. It was going to be used against you. All those people who really didn’t like him and were trying to find reasons to bring him down and reasons to say, 'He wants this, and wants that,' now they’re going to have their moment,” Gumbel said.
Woods eventually checked himself in at a clinic to treat his sex addiction, and even though it was a long and winding road back, he managed to come back better and stronger than ever.
He may no longer be an example of a 'perfect guy' or the ultimate role model. But perhaps that only makes him greater. He's just a human being like the rest of us, and he doesn't have to show himself as something he isn't.
