Tiger Woods' brief foray in PR-crisis hell is over. Now that he has confessed, he can go back to being the world's greatest golfer and product endorser again.
Yes, some other women will probably be paid gobs of money to share their Tiger stories in the weeks ahead. Yes, US Weekly, et al, will keep using the new revelations to sell more magazines.
But Tiger himself has passed through the storm.
What were the two critical events?
- First, the police dropped an investigation that might have led to charges of filing a false police report or domestic violence. This would have required explanations and confessions that could have been far more damaging to Tiger's reputation and earning power than the revelation of some affairs. Because the police backed off, however, Tiger's decision not to reveal whether or not Elin caused the crash by chasing him with a golf club now looks wise.
- Second, the confession. If Tiger hadn't confessed, every day would have brought new headlines and new claims, along with new voicemails and new trampy-looking women. For $150,000 a story, lots of people would have remembered doing lots of scandalous things with Tiger Woods.
The reverberations will continue, but Tiger's role in the show is over. Already, in the hour or so since the confession, Nike and Gatorade have both announced that they're fine with him sleeping around. After a horrendous start and a lucky break, in other words, Tiger's crisis team finally got the job done.