Is EA sports obligated to stick with Tiger Woods?
For me, sports have always been a distraction -- almost a fantasy. That's why I was actually somewhat reluctant to meet San Francisco Giants hurler Tim Lincecum at a 2K Sports event last year. I love watching him compete, but I didn't want a potentially negative experience to shatter my image of the two-time Cy Young Award-winner. Thankfully, Lincecum came off as incredibly normal -- which is also partly why I wasn't surprised when he got cited for marijuana possession last month. He seemed like any average twentysomething you'd meet on any college campus anywhere in the world...who also just might happen to indulge in the sticky icky every so often.
Tiger Woods, on the other hand, has never come off as "normal." And as we've seen, even his public fall from grace has been every bit as epic as his prowess on the golf course. The Tiger Woods fortress had been impenetrable for over 10 years, but a bizarre early morning car accident in late November -- and the subsequent revelation that Woods had multiple flings with multiple floozies (including multiple porn stars) -- exposed Tiger's heretofore private personal demons. And though it's still unclear just how much damage has been done -- both physically and mentally -- one thing's clear: The multibillion-dollar Tiger Woods brand will never be quite the same.
Despite Woods' admission of infidelity, EA Sports has already said that they'll be sticking by their man: "Our strong relationship with Tiger for more than a decade remains unchanged. We respect Tiger's privacy, we wish him a fast recovery, and we look forward to seeing him back on the golf course."
Of course, that was when the assumption was that Tiger was cheating on his wife with one woman. Not 16. But EA has repeatedly reiterated that the Tiger Woods PGA Tour franchise isn't going anywhere. But can they afford to weather the negative publicity, especially with Woods now taking an "indefinite leave" from the game?
We want it both ways with our athletes. We want them to be relatable in order to sell products, but we also want them to be larger than life -- literal supermen who can do no wrong and are bigger than the games they play. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were famously portrayed as Greek gods on the cover of Sports Illustrated after they both shattered Roger Maris' home-run record back in '97 -- and, like Tiger, they eventually had their own very public falls from grace.
But we never learn our lessons. A recent Heisman commercial on ESPN piled on the hyperbole and outright called Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow a "superhero." Not a "good quarterback." Not a "great leader." A "superhero." The ad didn't even mention what position he plays! This is a man who isn't even paid (well, assuming Florida's football program is on the up and up) to play football yet -- and ESPN is anointing him a "superhero."
Tebow's just the latest in the line of "chosen" athletes, though. Tiger Woods was "the chosen one" himself back in the mid-'90s. But not even in the sense of athletes like Tebow, Reggie Bush, David Beckham, or LeBron James. No, this was a man who Sports Illustrated named its Sportsman of the Year in 1996 when he had only two PGA tour wins -- not because of his play, but because he would allegedly "transcend this game and bring to the world a humanitarianism which has never been known before" and "have more impact than Nelson Mandela, more than Gandhi, more than Buddha."
All the hype rubbed me the wrong way even at the time, to be honest. I mean, the dude swings a mean nine-iron -- that puts him on the same level of people who stood against empires or founded religions? I never liked Tiger Woods that much, but I hadn't actively disliked him, either -- he simply seemed like the latest robotic, impersonal superathlete. His choice of friends -- fellow robo-athlete Roger Federer among them -- only served to make him even more unrelatable. But I sure as hell respected his talent on the golf course. Now, though, I'm not sure I can respect him at all -- and some of Tiger's sponsors seem to be coming to the conclusion that a lot of consumers might feel the same way.
Consulting firm Accenture was the first company to sever all ties with Tiger: "Given the circumstances of the last two weeks, after careful consideration and analysis, the company has determined that [Tiger Woods] is no longer the right representative for its advertising."
Meanwhile, Gillette didn't completely pull the plug, but it doesn't sound like we'll be seeing Tiger alongside fellow razor-sellers Federer and Thierry Henry again anytime soon. "We will support [Tiger Woods'] desire for privacy by limiting his role in our marketing programs," the company said in a statement.
Nike chairman and cofounder Phil Knight has a different take, though. "When [Woods'] career is over, you'll look back on these indiscretions as a minor blip," he told SportsBusiness Journal, "but the media is making a big deal out of it right now."
Knight has vested financial interest to term this as merely a "minor blip," though. Accenture doesn't need Woods to sell consulting, and Gillette don't need Woods to make razors. With Accenture and Gillette, it was all about Woods' image. But with Nike and EA, it's all about the golf. Nike needs Woods to sell its golf equipment. EA Sports needs the world's most famous golfer to sell their golf game. And that's because the average consumer isn't drawn to any golfer but Tiger Woods.
Even though I'm not a huge fan of the sport -- or Tiger -- I'll always watch on Sunday if he's going toe-to-toe with a group of challengers in a major like the Masters or the Open Championship. I never watched the PGA tour at all until Tiger debuted, and I think the same holds true for a lot of sports fans. If a soccer player, basketball star, or NFL athlete ends up in a scandal, EA's got plenty of well-known candidates to replace him. But on the PGA Tour, who can even approach Woods for the average consumer? Here's a list of the nine names that follow Woods on the money-leader list for 2009: Steve Stricker, Phil Mickelson, Zach Johnson, Kenny Perry, Sean O'Hair, Jim Furyk, Geoff Ogilvy, Lucas Glover, and Y.E. Yang. Mickelson's definitely the best-known name among them, but he's just a famous golfer; he's not a global icon like Woods.
This is why EA's in such a difficult position right now, and it's also why we'll likely keep seeing his name on PGA Tour brand. But I'll have a hard time separating Woods' endless "transgressions" from the game that bears his name. And that's the sense I get from gauging public reaction as well: We simply can't wrap our head around the audacity of Woods' behavior. This isn't some bump in the road like 2K cover boy Lincecum getting caught with pot. That, Phil Knight, is a "minor blip." I have multiple friends who smoke pot, even if I don't use it myself. I can respect their lifestyle choice. But I don't have friends who cheat on their wife with 16 women -- including while she was pregnant. I could never respect that lifestyle choice. You want the freedom to sleep with 16 women? Don't get married in the first place or agree to an open marriage.
In fact, it's difficult for me to fathom just how completely over the top Woods' "transgressions" were; this is behavior more akin to Jersey Shore than Pebble Beach. Sure, we're all amused by the antics of "The Situation," but would any company want the sex-crazed, greasy-haired star of MTV's newest reality phenomenon representing their product? Then again, as ESPN's J.A. Adande pointed out on Monday's Around the Horn, we're now seeing Flavor Flav in more mainstream advertisements than Tiger Woods. Flavor Flav, a man who's been to prison multiple times and openly and publicly attempted to seduce a bevy of beauties while wearing a viking helmet! Say what you will about Flav, but he never attempted to deceive us -- he is who we thought he was.
And that's where most of the Woods backlash comes from, I think. It's not that he isn't the impeccable hero we built him up to be -- it's that it was laughable how far that perception was from reality. It reminds me of the South Park episode where God reveals his true form -- a lumpy, misshapen mishmash of equal parts hippo, cat, snake, and party favor. The disturbing deity, sensing Mr. Garrison's revulsion, wonders why the town has reacted in such horror: "What did you expect me to look like, my son?" Mr. Garrison thinks a moment, struggling to find the right words, then quickly blurts out, "Well, not like THAT!" We all yearned to know the real Tiger Woods -- but not like THIS!
I don't think EA Sports will end up dropping Woods in the end -- like Nike, they've got far too much invested in him to cut the cord completely -- but I do think game companies will actively avoid building entire franchises around a single athlete after this fiasco. After all, if Woods wasn't bulletproof, who would be? Tim Tebow? Sure, it's highly unlikely he's got the same skeletons in his closet as Woods. But just like Woods, he's no superhero.
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