Certain Agents Weighing In On Tiger Woods

By Darren Heitner | Golf, Headline, Sports Agents

Scott Boras: “When people have the opportunity to see an individual and hear him express personal feelings, that’s always the strongest method of communication.” [The Wall Street Journal]

Carl Poston says Woods and his team should’ve acted sooner in dealing with the public relations nightmare. “He’s never been in any trouble before,” Poston says, “he’s the golden boy.” Poston says he would advise the golfer to hire a crisis management specialists to deal with such a public issue like this. [MyFoxHouston.com]

Steve Zucker: “I think the kind of companies that he’s tied himself up with are pretty much married to him for the length of those (sponsorship) contracts, and they are long ones.” [Crain's Chicago Business]

What are your thoughts?

Justin Herzig

In theory, I agree with Zucker’s statement that the companies Tiger has aligned himself with are in it for the long haul, and most likely will not be dropping him anytime soon. However, I could see one of the smaller brands he is with or companies with contracts soon expiring pulling a move similar to what Kellogg’s did during the Michael Phelps situation.

While neither Nike nor Gillette will be pulling this move, a brand that does not have as much invested in Tiger and doesn’t usually receive as much media attention, may make a very public statement releasing their sponsorship with Tiger if things continue to get worse. As we are starting to see, the Jaimee Grubbs situation was merely the tip of the iceberg and cover-ups and other scandals are quickly presenting themselves. Just before the Tiger scenario becomes old news, a company could have a press conference highlighting their desire end a current contract or not renew an expiring contract.

Kellogg stated that “Michael’s most recent behavior is not consistent with the image of Kellogg” and thus gained tremendous exposure from the media. It was a very strategic move that in the short term, I feel greatly advantaged them. If a company does choose to take this route, they must be very careful in how they approach the situation. However, if done correctly, Tiger’s actions can definitely turn into a profitable situation.

HGM

Personal skills as a manager, trump character training. Leave the acting to the actors. Sports will suffer with this type of managing.

Sam Cohen

I like the way he is handling it. There is no way he would be able to stay out of the media right now. Obviously, there is a lot more room for speculation right now because of his amibiguity but the truth is obviously much more embarrassing then the speculation. He was able to apologize without even admitting to any specific action. Even if he did tell the truth the media would still be talking about it maybe even more so. I think everyone has atleast a little respect for wanting to keep your personal life as private as possible. As long as he continues to win on the golf course he will be able to move on from this incident.
http://stay-pro.com Big Pro

Tiger’s world is crashing in on him – and it isn’t his mistress problem everyone is talking about.
Tiger has personally and heavily invested his name and rep on questionable offerings. He needs someone adult to talk to him. Right away.
Clearly he misses his father more than he realized.

Please see my post on Tiger at stay-pro.com

Thanks
http://www.sportsagentlawyer.com/ Jason Wolf

We are a forgiving group of people. In the grand scheme of Tiger’s empire this will be a small hiccup. Sponsors are wise to remain married to him. Tiger will get his personal life in order one way or the other, keep a somewhat low profile for a while and win a few more majors, allowing everyone to move on to the next celebrity scandal de jour.

With that said, you can be sure he will be handling his next PR crisis differently.
HGM

Moral turpitude clauses can be abused and misunderstood,especially on the front end. Young people are still developing their foundational views, often times when they show world class talent at an activity. We make a leap toward this pubic persona and we forget about the person behind the talent.