Why Everyone Wants Tiger Woods to Come Clean, and Why He Won't

“Tiger Woods needs to come clean.”

“Tiger Woods needs to explain exactly what happened on Friday morning and set the record straight.”

“Tiger Woods needs to explain everything right now.”

These are all phrases that you will see written in virtually every article about Tiger Woods and the incident that took place outside of his home at 2:30 a.m. on Friday morning.

But what you have to understand is that the general public, along with the many journalists who are taking this point of view, are not doing so without bias.

Tiger Woods doesn’t need to do anything.

On the contrary. We, the public, as well as the media, are desperately hoping for Woods to come clean and explain everything. It would provide a very entertaining story, and, at the end of the day, entertainment is what everyone is really after here.

No one cares about how Woods’ car managed to roll over a fire hydrant, or what hospital he was taken to, or the extent of his injuries.

Nope—we are concerned with one thing and one thing only: Was his wife, Elin, chasing him down with a 5-iron at the time of the accident?

From a public standpoint, we all want the juicy details of exactly what went down on Friday morning.

However, let’s just for a moment step back and explore the big picture from a PR standpoint.

What is more interesting and entertaining, staring at a blank wall or watching television?

Right now, Tiger Woods is the equivalent of staring at a wall.

There is a complete lack of information coming out of the Woods' camp, and there is unlikely to be any further information released anytime soon, if at all.

We also now know that Woods is not legally required to speak with the police. All he is required to do is hand over his license, registration, and insurance information, which he did yesterday afternoon through his lawyer.

So, if you have had any aspiration of reading all the juicy details in a police report, think again.

Considering the fact that he was in and out of consciousness for at least six minutes immediately following the accident, it’s safe to say that Woods probably suffered a concussion and will not attend his tournament—The Chevron World Challenge—this week.

That basically means that we will not see or hear from Woods until he shows up at Torrey Pines in late January for the former Buick Invitational (now the Century Club of San Diego Invitational).

Can you remember the "big news" from two months ago?

That makes two of us.

And many of those stories two months ago would have certainly been viewed as HUGE news at the time.

When Woods shows up at Torrey Pines in two months, he will respond to questions with well-rehearsed, detail-less answers...once again, the equivalent of staring at a blank wall. 

Woods lives in an airtight cocoon that he has spent years constructing to insulate and protect himself from the outside world. 

This cocoon is unlikely to crack or spring a leak any time soon.

So, he has two choices.

He can come completely clean about what might be a very embarrassing truth, or he can turn himself into a blank wall.

We, the public, would love nothing more than for him to come clean. It would give us something interesting to read and follow.

When people read newspaper articles, Internet articles, or watch news reports on the "Tiger Woods incident," they do so because they are after some new information that may provide them with some form of entertainment. 

How entertaining is it going to be to read articles for the next two months that say, “nothing further from the Woods camp” or “Tiger Woods was not seen again today.”

That’s not interesting, nor is it entertaining. It is, in essence, the equivalent of staring at a blank wall.

And as we all know, people will eventually get bored of staring at a wall, and decide to turn on the television and see what else is going on.

Maybe Woods is hiding something; maybe he isn’t. Needless to say, there are some not-so-small question marks surrounding the initial "accident" story.

But, whatever the case, it’s unlikely that he will provide us with the information we’re all so desperately craving, and that often frustrates the heck out of the media and the general public.

Woods is creating a nightmare scenario for the media and general public; he’s not giving us exactly what we want.

But are you prepared to stare at a blank wall for the next two months?

Me neither.