Like many guys, I enjoy sitting in front of the TV and watching Sportscenter. It’s great seeing highlights of your favorite team win and keeping track of your fantasy football players without having to change the channel.
But lately I’ve been getting pretty sick of Sportscenter, ESPN, and most sports coverage. It’s seems as though the Worldwide Leader in Sports has turned into TMZ rather than a highlight real.
Case in point: Tiger Woods
Since Friday, all of sports coverage has been dedicated to Tiger Woods. If he just won a major, a Grand Slam, broke a record, etc I could understand. But no. Coverage has been dedicated to him because of his minor car accident that has resulted in information about an affair or affairs.
Sadly, our media can’t get enough of it probably because we can’t get enough of it. We love the coverage. We love the rumors. We love the allegations. We love seeing a falling star. Gossip feels great because it’s fueled by speculation and up-to-the-minute updates.
But let’s be honest: IT’S NONE OF OUR BUSINESS!
Are extramarital affairs wrong? Yes. There’s no doubt about it. But would you want your dirty laundry aired on cable TV 24/7, discussed by radio hosts across the country, written about in every paper and online site, and a trending topic on Twitter. No way. We need to get out of it. It’s not our battle. It’s not our fight. This is between Tiger Woods and his wife.
The solution to stop the nonsense is easy: Quit talking about it. But that doesn’t happen in our society. Some may even argue that I’m fueling the fire by writing this. But my point is simple: this is none of our business. It doesn’t need to be talked about on TV, radio, the newspaper, etc.
Let’s pray for these people; not broadcast their personal lives across the wire.
It’s time for ESPN to get back to what it does best: Sports. For some reason, the network seems to think we all deeply care about are Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, the Lakers, and Tom Brady. Sadly they may be right.
But when it comes to tabloid mania, it still remains none of our business.
Tags: Derek Jeter, ESPN, Lakers, Sportscenter, Tiger Woods, TMZ, Tom Brady
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:35 pm
you are right. We are a nation of busybodies, and Tiger Woods is just our latest victim. What’s amazing is how most of the rumors came out way before any real information could have possibly been known! People were just making things up. It’s ridiculous.
December 3rd, 2009 at 7:00 am
You’re right. The rumors were swirling before any factual information came out. It makes me wonder if someone has been sitting on this information for a long time and just waiting for when the time was right–or when the price was right–to reveal the info.
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:14 pm
I agree that the rumors and the infatuation with Tiger’s messed up life is very sad. However, fame is a two-edged sword. Celebrities don’t seem to mind when the media is singing their praises. Tiger has marketed himself very well. I read a few months ago that he is ranked #1 most popular male athlete in the world. Unfortunately, the spot light shows the good, the bad, and the ugly.
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Great point Brian! It really does seem like celebrities want to bask in the glow when everyone loves them, and yet have complete privacy when something negative happens.
December 4th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
David – I actually think this kind of stuff is our business – just as much as Bill Clinton’s indiscretions in the White House were our business. We should be reminding our children and teenagers and ourselves constantly of how destructive poor choices can be and Tiger is a perfect example.
God saw a great purpose in giving us the story of David’s indiscretion with Bathsheba in the Bible. While it is really tough to read that story and try to understand how God could still look on David as a man after His own heart, it’s a great story of forgiveness, repentance and the lifelong hurt that poor choices when tempted can bring. Tiger needs to learn that lesson and if the media is his “Nathan” then so be it.
December 7th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Joe,
I think every situation in life, whether good or bad, is a teachable moment for children and teenagers. However, we allow ourselves to get too deep in things sometimes and almost make these issues something that deeply affects us.
Tiger has admitted his fault and we know the general idea of what happened. Fine. We can definitely learn from that and teach from that.
But when local media starts going tabloid with it, it goes too far. At this point does it really matter if there were 5 mistresses or 6? Does it matter who the employers of the girls are? It seems like people have an addiction to controversy as long as it’s happening to a celebrity and not themselves. At some point we have to step back and let that family work things out on their own. We don’t need to know every detail of what’s going on.
December 7th, 2009 at 10:18 am
The difference between Bill Clinton and Tiger Woods is that Clinton was elected to public office by the American people and therefore we had the right to know when he abused the power we had thus entrusted to him. Tiger Woods is a private citizen. While he is in the public spotlight, he is not an elected official.
While his morality is certainly flawed, adultery is not against the law in the good ol’ USA so my personal opinion: leave him alone. This is a matter between him and his wife. If you like to watch him swing a golf club, thats fine. But beyond that, we need to leave him and his family alone.