About a month before he turned 40 late last year, Tiger Woodsgranted a rare 1-on-1 interview to Time and spoke at length about his career, the sex scandal that rocked his world, his relationship with his ex-wife, his future, and more. It was an enlightening look into Tiger’s life at the time. But if you read this terrific new ESPN The Magazine piece penned by Wright Thompson on Tiger, it will give you an entirely new perspective on the most famous golfer of his era—even though it doesn't feature a single quote from Tiger, who refused to take part in the story.
The story is called “The Secret History of Tiger Woods," and it provides a fascinating glimpse into how Tiger turned into Tiger and, more specifically, how he has navigated his way through life since the passing of his father Earl Woods back in 2006. It covers everything from Tiger’s obsession with Navy SEAL training to the multiple affairs that he has had over the years. It also includes this amazing story about how Tiger once asked Michael Jordan and Derek Jeter how to talk to women, which is pretty crazy when you consider all of the affairs that he eventually had:
One night he went to a club in New York with Derek Jeter and Michael Jordan. Jeter and Jordan circulated, talking with ease to one beautiful woman after another. (Both declined to comment about the episode.) At one point, Tiger walked up to them and asked the question that lives in the heart of every junior high boy and nearly every grown man too.
You can read the whole piece—which clocks in at well over 10,000 words but is well worth your time—here.
One of the most interesting parts of the story comes towards the end of it when Thompson speaks with Jordan, one of Tiger’s longtime friends. MJ talks about Tiger’s immediate future, and he discusses what it’s like for a superstar athlete to step out of the limelight at the end of their career. MJ struggled with it, but he thinks that Tiger might actually be looking forward to calling it quits, despite the fact that he doesn't seem to know how to bring his career to a close.
“I don’t know if he’s happy about that or sad about that,” MJ says, while speaking about the idea of Tiger transitioning into retirement. “I think he’s tired. I think he really wishes he could retire, but he doesn’t know how to do it yet, and I don’t think he wants to leave it where it is right now. If he could win a major and walk away, he would, I think.”
MJ also goes on to say that, despite the close relationship that he has with Tiger, he doesn’t have the heart to tell him the truth about his current predicament.
“The thing is,” MJ says, “I love him so much that I can’t tell him, ‘You’re not gonna be great again.’”
And after showing Thompson some of the recent text messages he has exchanged with Tiger—the texts mostly involve getting their kids together after school one day—Jordan talks about how he worries about what the future holds for Tiger.
“What does he do every day?” MJ asks. “I don’t know. I haven’t the slightest idea. I do not know.”
He also says he’s concerned that Tiger hasn’t been able to move on from everything that happened to him after the death of his father ten years ago.
“That bothers him more than anything,” says MJ, who reveals that Tiger routinely reads online comments about himself. “It looms. It’s in his mind. It’s a ship he can’t right and he’s never going to. What can you say? The thing about T-Dub, he cannot erase. That’s what he really wants. He wants to erase the things that happened.”
Again, you should go and read Thompson’s entire piece on Tiger to get the full picture. MJ’s comments are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gaining a better understanding of who Tiger is and what makes him tick. Go here to check it out.
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[via ESPN]
