Robert Bicknell looks at how hitting rock bottom isn’t enough for Tiger Woods because he seems intent on digging even deeper.

Something about human nature, which I have never gotten used to, is the habit of elevating sportsmen and celebrities to ungodly heights, just to enjoy watching them fall.

We seem to take a perverse delight in their misery. It’s almost as if the public enjoy their pain because these stars let them down and proved themselves human, while conveniently forgetting the fact that they elevated them in the first place.

And now, on to the continuing saga, “The Trials and Tribulations of Tiger Woods” which carries a subtitle: “How to destroy yourself without really trying.”

Hmm, that subtitle could easily apply to me as well. I see to be a master of getting myself into trouble without even trying. I can only imagine what I would be like if I really put my mind to it, so it’s a good thing I have very little ambition anymore.

Anyway, unless you’ve been living in a cave, or in a location where the sharks love to eat undersea internet cables, you will have already heard the news that Tiger Woods was arrested on suspicion of DUI (Driving Under [the] Influence) and his field sobriety test was vivid proof that he wasn’t even on this planet during that time.

No, it wasn’t alcohol because Tiger blew a perfect 0.000 on the breathalyzer, but rather an unexpected reaction to prescribed medication he was taking following his back surgery.  He claimed he had a prescription for four different drugs: Vicodin, Turox, (aka “etoricoxib” which is illegal in the US), and Vioxx (which was pulled from the market in 2004).

Vicodin (a combination of the opiate hydrocodone and acetaminophen (aka “Tylenol” or “Panadol”) that gets you into trouble because it’s quite addicting. Side effects can include confusion, depressed breathing, and drowsiness, which are mostly the same symptoms Tiger exhibited when found on the side of the road.

According to lawyers, Tiger compounded the problem by cooperating. He performed a field sobriety test and failed miserably. He also agreed to the breathalyzer test (and passed), then agreed to a urine test. He was also cooperative in answering all the questions –as he understood them – which is to say not at all. In short, Tiger provided all the evidence needed to hoist himself up by his own petard. Something lawyers tell you to never do, but can his agreement be actually considered valid when it was obvious he was not in his right mind? After all, getting answers from Tiger during press conferences is hard enough, so talking to a police officer when caught doing something wrong would be, to most people, an automatic “I want to speak to an attorney” moment.

Yet, Tiger is a professional golfer and, as such, has a default setting of calling penalties on himself, and being an essentially honest man would have no reason to fear the police.

OK, sure, he’s black and got caught by the police in Florida, a state which doesn’t have a great reputation when it comes to police and black people, but he’s Tiger Woods and even the most backwards redneck Sherriff watches golf, or remembers the parade of hookers who came out of the woodwork with a Tiger Tale after he got caught cheating on his wife.

So, I guess we can say that things haven’t been the same for him ever since and, if anything; it’s been a spectacular downward spiral.

It’s at the point now where it really isn’t fun to bash Tiger Woods any longer.

Sure, I had no problem doing it when he screwed up his swing, or when he couldn’t “activate his glutes” but this is different. Beating up on Tiger now is like calling out a kid with Cerebral Palsy for double dribbling on the basket ball court. It’s just not right.

His reputation in tatters, his body failing him and his golf game nonexistent, this is not the time to hit him low. He’s already too low.

Tiger hasn’t made one good decision since the scandal and seriously needs to get his head on straight for the sake of his kids and his legacy.

Perhaps Tiger can learn something from Phil Mickelson, such as “family being more important than golf” and remember that golf requires a person to be responsible for their actions.

He needs help. VNS