All Tiger, All the Time – And Why Tiger Matters.

Immediately after news broke of Tiger Woods’ mysterious single-car accident near his Jupiter home late last year, I was hurrying through London’s Heathrow Airport, down an enormous escalator, when I saw a Times Square-sized Accenture advertisement.
 
You know the one – you have undoubtedly seen this advertisement, or one similar – where Tiger, winning one of his countless championships, pumps his fist – and emblazoned on top is the Accenture message, to “Be a Tiger.”
 
Just opposite, there was another Accenture advertisement, where Tiger had played a ball into the water – reflecting over his next shot, Accenture tells us “It is what you do next that counts.”
 
For the fifteen years Tiger has been on the scene, the world’s sporting and celebrity culture has asked us to think of heroism, and courage, and excellence – and our own moral universes -- through the prism of Tiger and his activities.  Consequently, it’s not surprising that we collectively pause when, suddenly, we realize his actions were less than heroic, courageous, or excellent.  In fact, they were something altogether different, with the dramatic flair of tabloid editors’ dreams.

At least some time over the past few months, we’ve asked ourselves – “what does and should this mean?” We at SixSeeds push the questions a bit further.  What does this mean for us as parents, and for our children?
 
This isn’t a screed against commercial culture (the marketplace is a wonderful thing), or against finding heroes and heroism in the sporting world. (I’ve spent my life finding great stories of virtue in the sporting world – and I’m not going to stop now!)   Rather, consider this an invitation -- this remarkable athlete has provided us a very stark opportunity to think about how success, bad decisions, woundedness, and regret all work together.  Not just for celebrities, but for us and our families.  Although the commentary has been endless . . . a couple additional observations might be helpful.
 
A Lesson in Parenting . . . and maybe Compassion?

Tiger is responsible for his choices – decisions which have obviously devastated his wife, children, the other women involved, and his own life and career. (I am a little bit of a moralist, perhaps to a fault, and therefore could spend a lot more time here, but am sure the SixSeeds.tv audience gets this point.)
 
Yet, ever since I read the very influential Tiger “Sportsman of the Year” 1996 Sports Illustrated article, which is when the world became familiar with the pressure Earl Woods put on young Tiger to be “the chosen one” who would change human history (chilling to read, even now), I have been concerned for Tiger and how this would all play out. Tiger was the hottest commodity in the sport industry, yet he was a ticking time bomb, destined to have great life challenges.  Years passed, but the negative consequences of his upbringing were not apparent.  
 
Eventually, however, the bomb went off.

I am not wise enough to say how all this works together as a parent, to a child, and for future adult decisions – but one thing is obvious – don’t predicate the history of the world on the ability of your child to hit a golf ball, or a tennis ball, or any other skill!  I don’t anticipate that it will end well for your child, or for anyone.
 
And, therefore – though Tiger is still responsible for his destructive decisions, it’s easy to have compassion for one with the literal burden of the world placed on their young shoulders.

It Isn’t Just “Between the Lines” Any More

Once upon a time, when the news cycle wasn’t 24 hours per day, and the news sources ubiquitous – you could follow your favorite athlete on the field only.  (Or for that matter, your favorite singer on the stage, or politician on the stump.)
 
This made it easy to take moral lessons from their on-field exploits because you didn’t have to deal with their (very personal and significant) indiscretions.  While I find it appealing to yearn for the old days when it was possible to not know of the indiscretions of those on ballfields (think Babe Ruth) or in politics (think John Kennedy) – that day will not return, and the world has to be taken as it is.
 
Now, we know everything, whether we want to or not.  

For example, a friend recently distributed his own well-considered list of the top athletes of all time, in several high-profile sports.  Of the nine athletes listed, a full six of them were controversial for reasons relating to their steroid use, drug abuse, gambling, or destructive relationship decisions.
 
This is the reality of our world – we will continue to know of the entire range of moral decisions being made by our would-be heroes.  So, when we are considering how to “be a Tiger” (with its shades of “be like Mike”, from the old Gatorade Michael Jordan days), we are going to eventually help our kids understand the broad range of relevant moral decisions – and how they all tie together.  
 
Is it a statistical aberration that two-third of the top athletes across these groups had issues with excess – of drugs, or gambling, or women?  I wish it were, but it is not.
 
I don’t want to discuss this with my children. But now that they’re old enough to pay attention to the sports world, I have to teach them that the greatest of sports heroes sometimes make very big mistakes – and that heroism, courage and excellence are important  across all life’s decisions.