New York:
Long before his public image became as badly dented as the Cadillac Escalade he was driving on Thanksgiving weekend, Tiger Woods wondered aloud about the appetite of the media.
"Why do they have to know everything?" he asked Jaime Diaz of Golf Digest. At the time, Woods - Tiger - was 14 years old.
So why do we have to know everything? In sports, entertainment and, yes, politics, there is a constant tension between the covered and the coverers. Athletes and actors would like for us to focus on the work, while reporters know that their editors and audience want more, because while the work is visible, we want our celebrities to show a little leg.
Arrogant and able to back it up, Woods was never destined to have a great relationship with the press - more Sean Penn than George Clooney. Some wear fame as a loose garment. Woods wore his as a shirt that was a few sizes too small.
Last Friday morning's press conference wasn't the revelation some critics have suggested - just another chapter in Woods' love/hate relationship with the press. Yet even as he offered up another public apology, it became apparent that, on the course and off, Tiger Rules still prevailed.
In his speech, Woods spoke directly about how entitlement had led him to make horrible decisions. But part of the reason he lived his life so recklessly was that he froze out any reporter or media organization that went off-message.
His off-course interests and frat-boy behavior were open secrets on the PGA Tour, but most beat writers didn't spill a lot of ink talking about his tendency to wing a club on occasion, blow past autograph-seekers and curse out the gods and the galleries when a shot fell short of perfection. With his footprint in the game, Woods was able to dictate the terms of coverage.
Probably the last time Tiger Woods let it all hang out was in 1997 in a story by Charles P. Pierce in GQ. Woods came off as profane, funny and a bit of a player. He hated the story, and after that it was all the iceman cometh, nothing but wonky golf talk from the microphone and baleful stares at anybody who wanted more than that.
"He stopped being impressed by coverage at a very young age, and after that he became very cold-eyed and wondered, 'What's in it for me?"' said Diaz. "He would love to play golf and never have to answer a question." (Golf Digest has a long-term contract with Woods for a monthly column that is currently suspended.)
Rob Tannenbaum wrote a story about Woods for TV Guide in 2001. The magazine had agreed not to make race a subject of the interview, but Woods brought it up independently. Even that was not allowed.
"His handler walked over and the interview ended immediately," said Tannenbaum. "Tiger just got up and left the room, and no amount of explaining that I had not breached the agreement was going to get Tiger to come back and sit down."
(Tannenbaum wrote up what he had, including Woods' father, Earl Woods, saying he hoped his son didn't marry any time soon: "Let's face it, a wife can sometimes be a deterrent to a good game of golf.")
"Doing a story on him was not an enjoyable journalistic experience, to say the least," Tannenbaum said by phone. "The thing that it most reminded me of was the few times when I have had an assignment in Eastern European countries and it was almost as if an attache from Moscow had been assigned to me."
Last Friday, even though there was seemingly much to discuss, Woods took no questions. Diaz and the rest of the press that attended was parked a mile away in a Marriott hotel, watching a video feed.
Damon Hack, who covers golf for Sports Illustrated, decided to remain in Arizona to cover the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. (Woods' appearance made tee-offs at the tournament, sponsored by one of the companies that dropped him after his tumble from grace, a little beside the point. He clearly hasn't lost his taste for battle.)
As a board member of the Golf Writers Association of America, Hack and others voted to boycott the event, reasoning that their presence at an event that was all answer and no questions was silly.
"For us, it was about respect," Hack said. "This organization has treated him very well and we were not allowed to do the job that we are supposed to do, and so we decided not to be a party to it."
Tiger Rules were in high effect, but not everyone was playing.
"He is doing what he is doing, which is a bit of a performance piece," said Terry McDonell, the editor of Sports Illustrated. "But that doesn't mean that we have to bend to it. We have our own rules as well."
Woods did take time during his talk to lecture the press on decorum - Gee, thanks for the lesson in manners, Tiger - but he has something of a point. Woods has never used his family as accessories on his brand as, say, Phil Mickelson has, and he has asked paparazzi to stay away from his children. And he has met up with the dealmaking side of the tabloid press before. In 2007, American Media Inc. agreed to kill a story in the National Enquirer about infidelities in exchange for a cover shot and interview in Men's Fitness.
So, if anything, his antipathy has only grown as he found himself daily in the gun sights of the tabloid and blogging press. "I think he was a little naive about what bad press really was," Diaz said.
He's not naive any more. Those of us who have had some experience with human frailties all know why Tiger Woods did what he did last Friday, which was to get in a room with people he had hurt or embarrassed to say he was "deeply sorry" for what he had done. That part made sense, the beginning of a process of amends.
I just don't know what the rest of us were doing there.
"Why do they have to know everything?" he asked Jaime Diaz of Golf Digest. At the time, Woods - Tiger - was 14 years old.
So why do we have to know everything? In sports, entertainment and, yes, politics, there is a constant tension between the covered and the coverers. Athletes and actors would like for us to focus on the work, while reporters know that their editors and audience want more, because while the work is visible, we want our celebrities to show a little leg.
Arrogant and able to back it up, Woods was never destined to have a great relationship with the press - more Sean Penn than George Clooney. Some wear fame as a loose garment. Woods wore his as a shirt that was a few sizes too small.
Last Friday morning's press conference wasn't the revelation some critics have suggested - just another chapter in Woods' love/hate relationship with the press. Yet even as he offered up another public apology, it became apparent that, on the course and off, Tiger Rules still prevailed.
In his speech, Woods spoke directly about how entitlement had led him to make horrible decisions. But part of the reason he lived his life so recklessly was that he froze out any reporter or media organization that went off-message.
His off-course interests and frat-boy behavior were open secrets on the PGA Tour, but most beat writers didn't spill a lot of ink talking about his tendency to wing a club on occasion, blow past autograph-seekers and curse out the gods and the galleries when a shot fell short of perfection. With his footprint in the game, Woods was able to dictate the terms of coverage.
Probably the last time Tiger Woods let it all hang out was in 1997 in a story by Charles P. Pierce in GQ. Woods came off as profane, funny and a bit of a player. He hated the story, and after that it was all the iceman cometh, nothing but wonky golf talk from the microphone and baleful stares at anybody who wanted more than that.
"He stopped being impressed by coverage at a very young age, and after that he became very cold-eyed and wondered, 'What's in it for me?"' said Diaz. "He would love to play golf and never have to answer a question." (Golf Digest has a long-term contract with Woods for a monthly column that is currently suspended.)
Rob Tannenbaum wrote a story about Woods for TV Guide in 2001. The magazine had agreed not to make race a subject of the interview, but Woods brought it up independently. Even that was not allowed.
"His handler walked over and the interview ended immediately," said Tannenbaum. "Tiger just got up and left the room, and no amount of explaining that I had not breached the agreement was going to get Tiger to come back and sit down."
(Tannenbaum wrote up what he had, including Woods' father, Earl Woods, saying he hoped his son didn't marry any time soon: "Let's face it, a wife can sometimes be a deterrent to a good game of golf.")
"Doing a story on him was not an enjoyable journalistic experience, to say the least," Tannenbaum said by phone. "The thing that it most reminded me of was the few times when I have had an assignment in Eastern European countries and it was almost as if an attache from Moscow had been assigned to me."
Last Friday, even though there was seemingly much to discuss, Woods took no questions. Diaz and the rest of the press that attended was parked a mile away in a Marriott hotel, watching a video feed.
Damon Hack, who covers golf for Sports Illustrated, decided to remain in Arizona to cover the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. (Woods' appearance made tee-offs at the tournament, sponsored by one of the companies that dropped him after his tumble from grace, a little beside the point. He clearly hasn't lost his taste for battle.)
As a board member of the Golf Writers Association of America, Hack and others voted to boycott the event, reasoning that their presence at an event that was all answer and no questions was silly.
"For us, it was about respect," Hack said. "This organization has treated him very well and we were not allowed to do the job that we are supposed to do, and so we decided not to be a party to it."
Tiger Rules were in high effect, but not everyone was playing.
"He is doing what he is doing, which is a bit of a performance piece," said Terry McDonell, the editor of Sports Illustrated. "But that doesn't mean that we have to bend to it. We have our own rules as well."
Woods did take time during his talk to lecture the press on decorum - Gee, thanks for the lesson in manners, Tiger - but he has something of a point. Woods has never used his family as accessories on his brand as, say, Phil Mickelson has, and he has asked paparazzi to stay away from his children. And he has met up with the dealmaking side of the tabloid press before. In 2007, American Media Inc. agreed to kill a story in the National Enquirer about infidelities in exchange for a cover shot and interview in Men's Fitness.
So, if anything, his antipathy has only grown as he found himself daily in the gun sights of the tabloid and blogging press. "I think he was a little naive about what bad press really was," Diaz said.
He's not naive any more. Those of us who have had some experience with human frailties all know why Tiger Woods did what he did last Friday, which was to get in a room with people he had hurt or embarrassed to say he was "deeply sorry" for what he had done. That part made sense, the beginning of a process of amends.
I just don't know what the rest of us were doing there.
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