Waggle Room - Team Tiger's Sleight of Hand: For What Exactly is Tiger In Therapy?

Published February 28, 2010

WARNING – This FanPost has no facts, only speculation.

It would appear Tiger Woods’ current situation (in a treatment facility, marriage in question, sponsors dropping him left and right, the butt of national jokes) couldn’t be worse.  However it could be worse.  And for all the criticism the Woods’ PR team has received; they may have made a decision early on that has lessened the damage the current #1 golfer’s image received.

I believe Tiger Woods is currently receiving treatment to break addictions to prescription drugs; Ambien and Viacodin if I were to guess specific medications.  And I believe Team Tiger has allowed the sex addiction story to become the running story (if not quietly leaking it themselves) to give the media something to report instead of a possible chemical dependency.

Look at portions of his press conferenc public statement (emphasis mine):

It's hard to admit that I need help, but I do. For 45 days from the end of December to early February, I was in inpatient therapy receiving guidance for the issues I'm facing. I have a long way to go. But I've taken my first steps in the right direction.

...

Some people have made up things that never happened. They said I used performance-enhancing drugs. This is completely and utterly false.

Notice two things; he doesn’t say he is getting guidance for sex addiction, but for the issues he is facing.  He also vociferously denies using performance-enhancing drugs.  People wondered why he would out that in the statement; I now believe it was there to get people off the scent of the non-performance-enhancing drugs he was taking.  This may be dancing on the head of a pin, but if he is in treatment for substance abuse, everything said above is true.

Consider what was reported by Florida Highway Patrol on the night of the accident. According to police reports, Tiger had four collisions the night of November 27th; with bushes outside the driveway, hedges parallel with the road from his house, and the well known hydrant and tree.  Other reports stated that Tiger was shoeless and snoring when medical authorities arrived.  The public has been allowed to run with the collisions and the unconscious Tiger are all due to a crazed Swede chasing the car down with a 9-iron (since it was before January 1, the new groove restrictions did not yet apply), but all the above can be due to someone in no condition to drive getting behind the wheel, turning on the ignition, pulling out of his driveway and falling asleep sometime after turning left from the hedges. 

See why Team Tiger would add this line in Woods' remarks?  Because it is easier to them to recover from ‘Tiger really likes strange’ than ‘Tiger is an addict’.  The current fervor aside, a professional male athlete having a lot of female accompaniment isn’t usually disastrous to their image (for example, Martin Brodeur cheated on his wife with her sister; he is still considered the best hockey goalie of all time and infidelity doesn’t come up immediately when you mention his name).  Contrast that with John Daly, who is more known for his struggles with alcohol abuse then for being a two time major winner.

This is not to say Tiger didn’t try to have a biblical relationship with every blonde in America in her 20s with a flat stomach and a lack of gag reflex.  Nor is it to say Tiger’s marriage wasn’t/isn’t in jeopardy for his actions.  What this says is the public and the media were so taken by the sexual scandal, they allowed Team Tiger to obscure a possible issue that, if it became public knowledge, would even further affect how we look at the 14 time major winner for all time
The National Enquirer, who is on a current hot streak, says the same thing.