Tiger Woods Apologizes: “I Was Unfaithful, I Had Affairs, I Cheated”

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by Steve Krakauer | 11:29 am, February 19th, 2010

» 17 comments

In a slow, deliberate, 12-minute address by Tiger Woods, one of the greatest athletes of all time, he apologized and shed some light on his future plans.

It began with a slow walk alone to a podium in front of a blue curtain (“It looks like a magic show,” said Rick Reilly on ESPN) and ended with a hug from his mom who was sitting in the front row of the small audience. Here’s what happened in between, with video of the statement.

“Good morning and thank you for joining me,” said Woods to start. Early on he seemed to get get choked up. “Now every one of you has good reason to be critical of me,” he said. “I am deeply sorry for the irresponsible and selfish behavior I have engaged in.”

• The first comment about his wife: “Elin and I have started the process of discussing the damage caused by my behavior.” And later, he was forceful about the night it all began:

It angers me that people would fabricate a story like that. Elin never hit me that night or any other night. There has never been an episode of domestic violence in our marriage ever.

• He apologized a lot, but one that stuck out was this: “My behavior has caused considerable worry to my business partners.”

• This was big: “I was unfaithful, I had affairs, I cheated. What I did was not acceptable and I am the only person to blame.”

• As for treatment, he says he needed help, and had just spent 45 days in an in-patient facility, and “starting tomorrow, I will leave for more treatment and more therapy.”

• He seemed to have some serious disdain for the media. He brought up the idea of answering questions about his marriage and his affairs. And then he said – not happening. “Please know that as far as I’m concerned every one of these questions and answers is a matter between Elin and me. These are issues between a husband and a wife,” he said, and later, more strongly, “Please leave my wife and kids alone.”

• Hey Brit Hume! Woods says religion is helping him…but… “Part of following this path is Buddhism.”

• He emphatically shot down the idea he may have been using Performance-Enhancing Drugs: “This is completely and utterly false.”

One strange staging matter occurred at 11:10amET, when the direct camera shot feed cut out, and all networks switched to a strange over-the-shoulder shot. But this is what we get, folks. For a while, you will only have these 12-minutes to chew over. He’ll be back to golf “one day,” he said, and he wouldn’t “rule out that it will be this year.” But when will he talk about this again? No one knows.

• Related: More on Woods and Buddhism

Here’s the video:

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Elin Nordegren, Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods Apology, Tiger Woods video

http://trickletown.vox.com/ Trickletown

What an insufferable dullard ! Boring, boring, boring.
mcf1757

Great first step, I’m rooting for ya Tiger!!
http://www.abramsresearch.com/ Dan Abrams

He does not have an obligation to tell the public who he slept with. I do believe, however, that if he wants to make what his wife did NOT do to him that night a central theme of the statement, then he has to tell us what DID happen. Taxpayer dollars were used for the police to come to the scene and for the D.A.’s office to investigate. If he “owes” the public anything, its not just a defense of his wife, but an explanation of his own actions that led to this downward spiral.
Olby Sucks

Do us a favor, tigger. Don’t go away mad, just go away! POS!
http://www.mediaite.com Dan Fogarty

The knock on Tiger has always been he’s golf-playing robot, and this didn’t do much to refute that criticism.

With that said, Tiger’s following the Kobe Bryant playbook: Maintain the wall between yourself and the public, stick to the script, outlast the controversy, and the endorsements will come back when you’re winning championships again. The first two parts just happened, it remains to be seen how the rest plays out.
dhg

I think it speaks volumes when the entire american media system stops for this…

He doesn’t deserve anywhere near this much attention.He’s a golfer and what ever he did or does has about as much effect on pretty much all of us as if your mailman was sleeping with the girl at the 7-11.
AikidoJoe

I don’t care that Tiger banged other women. I don’t care that he prefers to bang white women. I don’t care who he bangs period. As long as his PGA Tour series of video games keeps getting more and more awesome, I’ll keep buying them.
roxsteady

It really is pathetic that the press and even some people believe they have the right to know everything about his personal life. They don’t! As for Golf, the ratings have dropped by 50%. That should tell you all you ned to know. As for when he’ll discuss again. Perhaps some didn’t hear him when he said he would not be discussing it at all. That was my favorite part. If the press in turn wants to ignore him, they’ll be the only ones. Just watch the ratings the next time he steps on the course!
http://www.Realtime-Vista.com chellebauer2

AikidoJoe, I agree with you. He is not the only person who did this before. At least he did the first step to apologize.
Roxsteady, you are right. No body has the right to know everything about his personal life just because of what he did. Again, he is not the first and only athlete that did this mistake!
libra blue

Who wrote this script? It couldn’t have been more staged and predictable.

I couldn’t care less about his personal life, but he needs to stop passing himself off as a role model, even if it is only to kids who aspire to push little balls in holes.

I agree that the media has no right to follow his children around, but I wonder why he didn’t seem to care about his children when he was screwing his mistresses. He needs to take some responsibility for that as well.
mcf1757

Librar blue:

Tiger is a role model, he the Best Golfer in a generation, kids should aspire to play golf like him, nothing more, nothing less!!!
TfT

I didn’t watch but when I read that ABC, CBS and NBC were breaking into regular scheduled events to cover this live, I thought — how sad, not for Tiger but for the media. They have turned “breaking news” into nothing more than the National Enquirer. Shame on all of them.
srmicca

So are we to assume that since Tiger is a great golfer he should be able to get up there and NOT be able to read from a prepared speech? I’d like to see any of you get up there and do what he did and appear natural and unnerved.

Libra blue – You don’t think he’s taking responsibility for his actions? What do you expect him to do that will convice you that he’s taking responsibility for his actions? I don’t see him blaming anyone else but himself for what he did to himself and his family. I see him taking full responsiblity and trying to rectify his situation.

I don’t believe he has to rectify his standing among the media or the public. He will continue to educate and help out kids in many ways. He will, eventually, get out on the course and do what he does best – and that’s play golf. Period.
Puter Boi

Dan Abrams:

With all due respect. I am a big fan, but you are way off this time. To be sure….the police came….they investigated an accident….they made reports…..it’s all public record. Any fines have been paid…..not to mention the gazillion dollars of taxes that Tiger has paid here in Florida over the years. That’s why we pay taxes. So the authorities respond to accidents etc. That’s it.
He owes us nothing else, and as much as the MSM has decided to dip into the world of tabloid “journalism” over the years…it still doesn’t change anything.

If Tiger owes us more, than so does every single person ever involved in an accident….every one….no exceptions…put them all on TV…if we follow your theory….we could have an Apology/Explanation Cable channel…

btw: When are you getting another show….we need you on TV.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Kathy-Kitt/628413749 Kathy Kitt

Tiger Woods made his choice about his career path and making money on his image so, for the most part his request for privacy is disingenuous at best. As for his wife Elin’s privacy, I can’t imagine how difficult this situation is for her but, again, this is the life she chose. Their children never chose this life and should be left alone, even when with their parents. The wood’s family chose a public life in the media and considering the life it has afforded them they should just learn to deal with it. Woods should have known better than to behave this way with these women. They always get caught. As for the crash and the legal implications didn’t the local police say the case was closed. Is it worth the time, trouble and money they would spend pursuing it?
pyrope

Tiger Woods did indeed make some bad choices but as a private citizen and accountable to no one but his family and himself owes no one an apology. However, as a public figure and someone who fashioned himself, he made an apology.

I have some experience in asking people questions and ascertaining the veracity of their responses so I believe I am qualified to offer an opinion: I watched his statement and listened carefully to every word. I studied his “body english” and believe strongly that he told the truth.

While he has enjoyed his celebrity status and made lots of money from it, I also believe he is well within his rights to ask for privacy and for the media to let him and his family alone. I hope everyone will respect and honor his request.

I wish Mr. Woods the best of all possible futures and hope his career in golf will resume.
libra blue

@srmicca, Woods didn’t do this out of any real sense of morality he only did this to save his career. He tried to make the media look like the bad guys when it was his actions that started this in the first place and he is the one responsible for what is happening to his family. If he wanted privacy he should not have become a celebrity.

People need to stop worshiping these sports figures, they don’t deserve this idiotic adulation. People who admire and keep pumping money into arrogant sports figures like Woods and let their kids idolize them can’t be that bright in the first place.

Let’s be honest, what they do is of little to no importance.