On Tiger Woods and the Great Cover-Up

Full Disclosure: I am not now, and have never been a fan of Eldrick Woods. Since the early days of his professional golf career I have perceived him to be unnecessarily arrogant. I find the behavior of his caddy (and himself) to be indicative of their own sense that they are entitled to different treatment than anyone else. His outbursts and temper tantrums on the course make it clear that he has little to no respect for the game which has given him so much. That said, what follows is most certainly written from a fair and unbiased perspective.

Money moves the world. Few people in the world have more money than Tiger Woods, and few people in the world have the ability to make money for others like Tiger Woods. This is why he used to have so many companies clamoring for his endorsements. This is also why many of those companies have inexplicably stood by him even as he was revealed to be devoid of any character or moral fiber. Money moves the world.

Tiger's money moves the news. This is why so few details of his "accident" and the following events have ever come to light. Certainly if any other "celebrity" had been involved in a similar incident we would have every detail down to and including what kind of crumbs were in the back seat of the car, and how long they had been there. The news media had more access to Princess Diana's death than to Tiger Wood's fender-bender. Tiger's money moves the news.

Did you know that way back in 2007 the National Enquirer had photos proving that Tiger Woods was cheating on his wife? Why would they not break what they had to know was one of the HUGEST stories of the decade? Because Tiger made a deal. He agreed to uncharacteristically do an in-depth interview and story for Men's Fitness Magazine which just happens to be under the same ownership as the National Enquirer. But don't take my word for it, read what the Wall Street Journal says (http://tinyurl.com/ya9s8n3).

Why does this matter? Two reasons:
1) Tiger Woods has the ability to control how and when stories about him are released.
2) He knew in 2007 that eventually this story would come to light. He just needed to decide how and when.

So why now?

On September 14th of last year a medical assistant was questioned at the U.S/Canada border because she was transporting human growth hormone (HGH) and other illegal (performance enhancing) drugs for Dr. Anthony Galea. On October 15th, Dr. Galea was arrested in Toronto. He has regularly admitted to using HGH (a banned substance for all professional sports) himself, and giving it to several of his patients; although he denies giving it to athletes. Both Alex Rodriguez (an admitted user of performance enhancing drugs) and Dara Torres (remember her incredible transformation for the summer olympics two years ago) are patients of Dr. Galea.

Records show that Dr. Galea went to Orlando four times last winter to administer "platlet therapy" to Tiger Woods. For a few days, this story was all over the news, then suddenly in the middle of December, it was gone; eclipsed by the far more salacious stories of Tiger's multiple mistresses and the sordid details of his affairs and text messages. (if you want to check any of this out, just google "Dr. Anthony Galea")

What happened? How is it that the REALLY big story (Tiger Woods Uses Performance Enhancing Drugs) just went away in favor of a nastier, but ultimately less harmful to his career and legacy story? Where are the hard-nosed journalists who stalked Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire for half a decade? Did Tiger temporarily sacrifice his image and family so that his golf-playing legacy could endure?

I'm just sayin'.

You be the judge on this one.