When Tiger Woods Talks, Will You Be Listening?

So Tiger Woods is going to break his silence tomorrow.

So what?

I, for one, will not be listening.

If this whole sordid affair (no pun intended) was not of a sexual nature, would anyone care?

Seriously, what if Tiger had cheated a business partner out of a few thousand (or million) dollars? The court of public opinion would probably cast judgment on him for such behavior, but would the outcry for him to address the situation publicly be as great as it is now?

Probably not.

I feel for Tiger, to be honest. I don’t condone infidelity, but I am with him in the sense that such a delicate situation as cheating on one's spouse should be dealt with in private.

I know that some think because he has publicly embarrassed his wife that he should publicly apologize to her. I am also aware that the same sentiment is held because he’s let his fans down, many believe he should likewise publicly apologize.

I’m not buying it.

The sincerest forms of apology happens in private . What Tiger has done in relation to his marital vows is between him and his wife.

When it comes right down to it, Tiger hasn’t broken any civil laws. (Religious laws or laws of God are a different matter and would need to be addressed within the context of religion). What I mean to point out is that Tiger has done nothing that would put him in jail.

So why the demand for him to speak publicly?

Simple. The media.

Today’s media is a pompous beast. It feels it is entitled to be wherever it wants to be and to do whatever it wants to do in the name of “getting the story.”

Don’t believe me? Take a look at TMZ or any other tabloid publication.

When all is said and done, what we’ll know after Tiger reads his statement will be little (if any) more than what Tiger has already said through his website.

Hey, I’m as much like the next guy as anyone else. Instinctively, I want the details. The women, how many of them, how he could get away with it for so long—these are all things that the pruriently-driven man inside me wants to know.

But, really, should we give in to these base interests?

It would be wise to put ourselves in Tiger’s situation. If we were caught in wrongdoing, would we want the details of what we had done strewn across every newspaper and on every newscast across the globe?

Of course not.

Such should be the case for Tiger—or any other high-profile person that makes mistakes. Give him his privacy. So long as what his mistakes don’t impact us directly, he has a right to his privacy.

So, won’t you join me in boycotting tomorrow’s public statement? When the cameras go on and the sporting world stops to hear what Tiger has to say, join me in doing something other than being glued to the tube.

Like maybe teeing it up on the local par-three?