My Advice to Tiger Woods

If Tiger Woods walked through our doors and wanted to get my two cents on how he is going to escape from this mess, this is what I'd tell him:

The good news is that your career can get back on track, the bad news is that you will have no more endorsements for a while.

Case in point: On Feb. 18, 2008, New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettite stood in front of a roomful of reporters and admitted he used performance enhancing drugs after his name came up in investigations during the 2007 off-season. He apologized for taking the substances and now quietly enjoys the twilight years of a fine career.

On the other hand, there is the story of another Yankee, Roger Clemens, who despite the Everest-sized pile of evidence pointing to his use of steroids never made a single apology about it, choosing to be the tough guy instead and deny every single accusation ever pitched his way.

Although the source of these problems are a little different, the way out is not very different: tell the public the truth and tell it often.

Skipping out on interviews with the state police and on your own charity golf tournaments will not help your cause. No, you don't owe America any explanations but otherwise TMZ's point of view is all America will have and are you sure that's what you want everyone to believe?

Here's the beauty behind telling the truth: if these sordid tales are true and you fess up to it, the public can respect that more than a man who seems like he's got something to hide. Like it or not, Tiger, you are a public figure and we love our celebrities.

Releasing blanket statements on your Web site is not only cowardly, but ineffective at this point. Your audience now involves people who read US Weekly and People, not only golf junkies who turn to your site for the latest on Tiger, so you'll need to take that in consideration next time you have something to say about this matter.

You have to be proactive about this. You waited too long to say something about the car accident and when you did, the cat was already out of the bag yet you acted like you still had everything under control. Do you really think a simple release on your site and removing yourself from the public eye will make this go away? The more you hide, the more the public will want to know.

In short, Tiger, apologize, show that you mean it over the next few months, continue being proactive about responding to this mess, keep working at your game and maybe you'll win a major next year or the year after that, and then guess what? You'll have successfully put this behind you. You won't ever be a poster boy for countless products again, but you'll be happy that you can show your face in public again.

Good luck!

Andre