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The Tiger Woods Affair Shows that Great Athletes Aren't Necessarily Good People
Tweet Share on Facebook December 3, 2009 Comment (27)By Laura Chapin, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
For the record, I don't think Tiger Woods's apparent pathological cheating on his beautiful wife and kids makes him "more human." I think it makes him a lying slimeball.
Tiger Woods should never have been put on that high of a pedestal in the first place—and neither should any other athlete. He's a great golfer. That doesn't mean he's a great human being. His athletic triumphs are admirable. His treatment of women, not so much.
As a society, we are far too eager to project onto athletes qualities they do not possess out of our own insecurity. And we are far too willing to reward and forgive them for bad behavior out of an unwillingness to admit their public image is just advertising. (And I say this as someone who bleeds Burnt Orange and whose perfect weekend consists of college football all day Saturday and pro football all day Sunday. I'm sure Colt McCoy will let me down at some point too.)
