At the risk of further adding fuel to the fire; the Tiger Woods story just keeps on going; he’s a news editor’s dream come true.
First we had the slightly suspicious car accident outside his house, then the revelations started to come out, then more and more ‘girlfriends’ came forward to say they had affairs with Tiger, then the sponsors dropped him, then his Mother-in-law was admitted to hospital, then we heard his wife had bought a house in her native Sweden, then Tiger goes into therapy, then Tiger holds a press conference to say sorry and then we hear the commentary on whether he was sincere or whether Tiger should have done more, sooner. Exhausted? Think how Tiger must feel.
The truth is that this does mean ‘breaking news’ nowadays and so these sporting professionals (John Terry and Ashley Cole included) have to think very carefully about their media profile and their behaviour. Sometimes we wonder if they have PRs advising them and if they do why aren’t they listening to the advice?
In short, these characters are role models, whether they like it or not, and this brings with it a fair amount of responsibility… not something we are seeing from them at the moment.
Written by Will Edwards – www.bluewoodtraining.com- February 2010