What if he said “I had a fight with my wife and got pissed off so I decided to go for a drive and clear my head. Unfortunately, in my state of mind I was in no condition to drive. It was a bad decision and one that will not be repeated.” Would that do it for you, assuming it’s more or less true?
OK I can buy that the people who emply him deserve an explanation. I still don’t deserve one.
Both golfers endorse products. Not sure what you meant here.
According to TMZ and CNN, Tiger will not be playing this week. Too sore.
He can play and win the US Open on a broken leg, but he can’t play with a few scratches on his face?
I disagree with this sentiment.
Anyone buying products simply because Tiger Woods endorses them is kind of an idiot, in my mind. Tiger Woods isn’t some sort of an indentured servant to you or anyone else simply because you buy the products he endorses. That includes the companies which he represents. He is a human being with his own life. Why in the world would you think he owes you anything? Because you bought a hat with the TW logo on it?
As Contrapuntal points out, suppose he confirms all the nasty rumors? Do you think that will help or hurt Nike more than just shutting up about it?
If Nike or GM or anyone else don’t like this image they are free to drop him. Just like you are free to not buy his merchandise anymore.
Why? If you were in a car wreck would you want your boss hauling you into HR and demanding you tell them everything that happened? Better still, suppose you were responsible for millions upon millions of dollars of sales for your company and then got into a minor accident. Would you still be okay with your company demanding full disclosure?
Knowing or not knowing won’t change anything for the sponsors. The public image of Tiger won’t change just because Phil Knight knows the truth.
I would not want my boiss hauling me in, but then again I am not paid for my image and reputation to sell products. Of course Tiger can refuse, but I think his sponsors have a right to demand an explanation if he wishes to keep receiving millions of dollars from them.
Yeah, this is not exactly keeping the story hidden, isn’t it?
The BS detector is flashing brightly on this one. The photos on TMZ seem to indicate that the accident was relatively minor. There sure didn’t seem to be a need for the back window to be broken to get Tiger out of there, because the driver’s side door sustained almost no damage, and the back driver’s side door sustained no damage at all. Who sees a minor traffic accident and thinks, “I know, I need to smash the back window of the vehicle to get the driver out of there?”
Just a bizarre story all around, it seems. If nothing else it seems that this story proves that you can’t trade on your fame AND get privacy when you want it. Even if you are Tiger Woods.
I expect he’s not talking, not to avoid having people find out about his affair, but so as not to incriminate his wife.
If what we all assume happened, happened, then his wife assaulted him with a golf club, resulting in his losing control of the car and crashing. That could result in very serious charges against her, something he seems intent on avoiding.
Perhaps her thinking was “There he is, the creep! And he’s trapped, and I’m holding a metal club …” Did his facial injuries actually come from the crash itself?
Sure.
Me too. And without anything to support it, I kind of think that’s what happened.
I don’t follow golf that closely, but I imagine Daly’s endorsements are strictly trading on his golfing skill - not his persona. Woods presents an image of being charming, upstanding, all that stuff. So his public image matters a whole lot more than Daly’s, who has had his fair share of public embarrassments, to the extent that it’s doubtful that GM or Gillette is going to ask him to shill their products.
Not for more than 10 years or so. 
He’d been very successful at maintaining some level of privacy up to this point, but maybe he was just lucky nothing juicy had happened to him.
Nobody knows. There are reports that the Florida police are trying to get a hold of his medical records so they can see if his injuries are consistent with the crash. If we’re going to speculate on this scenario, though - if she’d hit him in the face with a golf club his injuries probably would have been a lot worse. In theory maybe she took a golf club to his car, then he drove off and hit the hydrant and tree. Again, it’s not impossible his injuries didn’t come from the crash, but he could have been driving at 30 mph and hit two obstacles. I don’t think cuts in the mouth and a knock on the head and so unbelievable considering the airbags didn’t deploy.
I GOT IT! Sleepwalking. Ambien overdose. Wifey panicked and picked up the club to stop him knowing he was still asleep. 
Okay, maybe not. Still weird, though. Not drunk, some odd injuries. Did he wear his seat belt?
Nope. Daly hasn’t won much of anything in years - I don’t really follow golf and I know that. His regular guy persona is pretty much all he’s got going for him at this point.
I disagree that Woods owes the public an explanation. But the public demands one and the police are involved, so he’s going to have to give them something at some point.
The cops aren’t letting this thing go. Now, they’re trying to get a warrant for hospital records.
All this over a simple fender bender. If they get proof Tiger has fight wounds this will get ugly quick. Lawyers will make millions milking this thing.
Actually, his endorsement is perfect for his brash persona: LoudMouth Pants.
Just to be clear, I don’t own any Tiger Woods endorsed stuff, as far as I know. But this is precisely what his relationship with Nike is about. He wears it, you like him, so you wear it too. People buy his stuff because they feel a connection to him. If he doesn’t respect that connection, he’s going to find that they will be less likely to trust him.
And I know there are a fleet of Tiger fans who will never waver. But there are lots of people who will.
Contra’s explanation would pretty much end any speculation one way or the other. TMZ et al will have a field day, but most people would probably accept it for what it was and move on. Someone in Nike’s marketing department is probably keeping a cursory eye on how this story progresses. Because he’s Tiger Woods, he’ll never be out of an endorsement deal with them. But what about GM, Gillette, and the other non-golf related deals he has? They’re watching this very closely, I’ll bet.
I’m a professor by trade, so if I did something that caused the university embarrassment, I would probably need to do something to clear the air. I’m a fairly small fish in the big pond, but my colleagues in athletics, for example, always need to pony up an explanation for their bad behavior. Our baseball coach was nabbed for a DUI recently and made very public apologies. Now, if we look at Contra’s proposed statement, that’s really all that needs to be known.
This quote is from tmz article I mentioned above. The hospital can’t give out medical information without a warrant. TMZ knows that information is protected by HIPAA. What kind of dumb ass reporters do they hire?
I had to take a HIPAA workshop and sign a form at work. I could be prosecuted for revealing private information. I have to put any open folders up before I can even leave my office. Nothing can be left for someone to see accidentally. HIPAA violations are taken very seriously.
He has pulled out of his own tournament.
This just keeps looking worse for Tiger. Fairly or unfairly, people are going to compare his performance in the Open with his refusal to even fly out to host his own event. Said flight to would certainly have been on a private jet. How sore can he be? The airbags didn’t even deploy.