Year of the toothless Tiger?

Is there a logical reason why celebrity athletes act the way they do?

Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson were all guilty of sexual indiscretions. Tiger is still not out of the woods, his golf career hanging in the balance. Bryant was able to wiggle out of a ticklish situation involving a resort attendant and thanks to a presumably expensive media makeover campaign, is now back in the public’s good graces. Magic was infected with the HIV virus and didn’t get it from a blood transfusion. Like Kobe, he managed to clean up his tarnished image and was even voted MVP of the NBA All-Star Game, played in the Olympics and staged an NBA comeback despite the infection.

It’s not only indiscretions of the sexual kind that athletes fall victim to. Because they’re made to appear bigger than life, some athletes think they’re above the law and as a result, aren’t bothered by drinking under the influence of alcohol or using drugs or brandishing firearms when they’re not supposed to or engaging in heavy betting. If they’re caught, they feel they can easily get off the hook by issuing a public apology.

But athletes must understand they carry a huge responsibility on their shoulders as role models. Kids look up to them, revere them as idols and dream of following in their footsteps. If athletes don’t set a good example, imagine the repercussions on the youth. Think of the imprint on the minds of the kids who will be the future leaders of the next generation.

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Perhaps, it’s the easy-come-easy-go syndrome that bedevils billionaire athletes. In the NBA, nearly every player has a rags-to-riches story to tell. Stars who grew up in poverty and under almost subhuman conditions in ghettos suddenly find themselves living lavishly, spending frivolously like basketball is a forever thing. Those who don’t know how to save and invest wound up like they were before, penniless, hungry and forlorn.

The issue of gambling is another matter that can turn athletes into heartless and mindless monsters. Athletes who incur big gambling debts often resort to things that compromise their principles and their own game.

In China, a book was recently published detailing sordid episodes of game-fixing in soccer and how club owners made tons of money by manipulating results. Sports columnist Li Chengpeng dug into the mess after he noticed “unusual” results in China’s qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup where the Mainland team beat Hong Kong, 7-0, but failed to reach the next round as its goal difference was one less than Kuwait.

“How could professional players make such a stupid mistake like wrongly calculating the goal difference?” asked Li who also suspected hanky-panky when China lost all its matches in the 2002 World Cup and failed to score a single goal.

But as 2010 is the Year of the Tiger, everyone’s wondering if Woods can survive the roughest greens in his life. Obviously, there will be a major PR campaign to stage his comeback like Kobe. The timing, however, is crucial. At the moment, Woods is keeping a low-profile and nobody knows where he’s holed up. He hasn’t played since November in Australia and the speculation is he’ll be back sometime in March to warm up for the Masters in April. There are other tournaments which he wouldn’t like to miss – the US Open in June, the British Open in July and the Ryder Cup in October. The consensus is the sooner Woods starts winning again, the easier he will be reaccepted by the public as a sports icon.

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Woods is a perfect example of an athlete gone wrong. His marriage to Elin Nordegren seemed like a fairy tale. He proposed at a game preserve in South Africa and they got married in Barbados. Their two children are adorable – daughter Sam and son Charlie. They appeared like a happy family. Then, the lid came off. Woods drove his SUV over a fire hydrant and into a tree, triggering a series of startling revelations about his “other” life that has been nothing short of scandalous.

No doubt, Woods will go down in history as one of the greatest golfers ever. He has so far won 82 tournaments, including 14 majors, and he just turned 34. Woods is the youngest golfer in history to post a career Grand Slam. In 2009, Woods was described by Forbes Magazine as the world’s first athlete to earn over a billion dollars and his net worth was estimated to be in excess of $600 Million, making him the second wealthiest African-American (his father is African-American and his mother is Thai) next to Oprah Winfrey. He has been called the world’s most marketable athlete.

Owing to the surge of reports of Woods’ indiscretions, his sponsors are dropping out one by one.

For sure, Woods will be back and soon, fans will embrace him once more as a sports hero, if he continues winning. But it will never be the same for Woods. For an athlete to be considered a star, he must shine through inside and out.