This past Friday, Feb. 19, Tiger Woods finally came out of hiding to make a public statement regarding his infidelity to his wife.

The truth of the matter is, while his apology seemed sincere, he should have done this a long time ago. Not because he owed me or anyone outside of his family an apology, but because he should have just been a man and owned up to his mistakes rather than hiding for months.

Tiger could have handled this situation with so much more grace than he did.

He went from the most recognizable and dominant athlete, as well as one of the most recognizable people in the world, to a punch line in a matter of days.

The public has lost so much respect for this man, and there is no way his public statement on Friday could have helped him fall back into favor.

Reading a statement and not answering questions did nothing to ultimately solve the issue for Tiger. It may even make things worse in the long run.

He seemed like his normal robotic self as he read his statement to a select group of friends, family and a few members of the  media.

While he did admit and take responsibility for his actions, this statement was so overdue that it had to be taken with a grain of salt.

During his statement, Woods even took a swing at the media for “stalking” his wife and children.

He could have avoided this by simply speaking out instead of hiding under a rock or in a cave for the past three months.

Tiger could have saved this for a private apology to those he hurt, because really all we should care about is when he is returning to golf, which he did mention he was going to do.

He just did not set a timetable for his return.

Although we should probably not care as much about things like this, the fact of the matter is the public as a whole does care about these things.

We live in a 24-hour news cycle, and things like Tiger’s infidelity are important to the public. This alone should have led Woods to handle this situation in a better manner.

As mentioned earlier, Woods did not actually owe anyone outside of those who were immediately affected by his actions an apology, but the majority of the public does not see it this way.

For some reason, people seem to enjoy seeing a public figure humiliate his or herself by publicly admitting their wrongs and allowing us into their personal lives.

While it may not be right for the public to be this way, it is the way things are, and they aren’t going to change anytime soon.

It just comes with the territory of being paid millions, and in Woods’ case, more than that — for ultimately playing a game.

Woods should have taken a page out of Kobe Bryant’s book.

In 2003, Bryant was accused of sexual assault by a 19-year-old hotel employee. Bryant denied the allegations of sexual assault, and the charges were eventually dropped.

He owned up to the infidelity and was able to go on with his life.

Bryant has even become more popular in recent years, his transgression is in his past and is basically a non-issue now.

If Woods would have just said he did it and he was sorry at the time of the allegations, things would have been easier on him.

Instead, when he first heard of the allegations, Woods released a statement saying they were false.

Then once it became known the allegations were indeed true, Woods released another statement saying he was sorry and went and hid under a rock  or something until Feb. 19.

He did acknowledge he has a problem, and he is getting help for it by being checked into a rehab facility for sex addicts, which he said he was going to on Feb. 20.

If he would have just come out and admitted he had a problem in the first place, people would probably be congratulating him on getting help with his problem.

Woods is not the first, and he is not going to be the last public figure to deal with a situation like this.

By ERIC MCGUFFIN

Editor

demcguff@umail.iu.edu

We should just hope the next person witnessed Woods’ fall from grace and handles it in a more adult manner.