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Tiger Woods officially takes his first step towards public ‘image recovery.’ Tiger's 'apology' speech/press conference was probably on every news channel but most particularly ESPN. The prepared speech lasted almost 15 minutes.

Obviously, Tiger was nervous.

Scripted? As expected. Robotic? Of course. Awkward at times? I thought so.

You can take this how you want to and some may agree and some disagree. Critics are going to dissect and analyze his mannerisms, choice of words, and whether this was a sincere attempt at a public apology or just completely fake.

All I say is: Wow! That had to have been the hardest thing to do for anyone. Sure, he messed up. He admitted he was unfaithful to his wife and disappointed a lot of people who has instilled their faith and trust in him. Do we need more?

Of course…we the public like to build up someone and put them on a high pedestal only to see them fall. Oh yea, it’s true. We do that with celebrities, athletes, and even the president. These people are not Saints and do indeed make mistakes. Shouldn’t that perception or somone with a ‘squeaky clean’ only be left to someone like the Pope?

I’m not saying someone in the public eye shouldn’t live their life in somewhat of a decent manner, but who are we to really judge. We all have our skeletons right? If normal ‘Joe Schmo’ was to commit adultery like Tiger did, he would have to deal with it with his wife, kids, and rest of his family...nobody else right? All these chicks he messed around with are conveniently throwing him under the bus all for a ‘story’ and boatloads of money. Is that wrong to say? Does it matter how much he cheated when the bottom line is he cheated…it doesn’t matter if it was once or 100 times right? I guess that’s up to Elin not the general public right?

It’s obvious that Tiger screwed up. Step one is that he’s acknowledging the mistakes. I feel bad for his wife, kids, and his Mother…his public image can be repaired…their feelings and dignity is what will take much more time if it is repairable.

One last thing: Any active celebrity or athlete can find retribution in their works. Tiger could go on a streak of PGA wins and show that he ‘overcomes adversity’ and win the hearts of the people in the way he performs on the course. Fans of sports are very forgiving of active athletes when they screw up. It’s true. This is why Tiger needs golf as much as golf needs him.

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