So let’s review:
• Larger-than-life sports figure.
• His private sex life goes public.
• Social media played a role.
• Clueless.
What, you’re tired of hearing about Tiger Woods? Understood.
But we’re talking about someone else. Another high-profile athlete. Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden.
Woods, of course, played the dating game full-speed ahead, even though he was married.
Apparently they were serving more than just bacon at the Orlando pancake house. And everywhere else Woods went. Team Tiger, we hear, tried to rent the Rose Garden for a meet-and-greet but they needed a bigger place.
Oden, younger and single, played nude photo-shoot with what he had to offer and sent the image along to an interested party. The world joined the party.
So it’s pretty easy to establish the similarities. But there are many differences. One is a lesson Woods could learn from Oden:
Oden faced the music.
Woods, on the other hand, appears to be stuck on stupid.
The dust settles more quickly when you step up and tell the public you’ve screwed up. That way you can get back to the business of making millions by playing games like golf and basketball.
As soon as the Oden photos surfaced — basically nude photos — he held a press conference. He took the blame, said he never intended for the photos to go public and said he learned his lesson.
There still might be consequences, of course, but the damage control was put into play early and I suspect it worked.
Woods — on the other hand — immediately went into seclusion. He jotted down a few lines on his Web site that basically said his private life is his private life and he had little interest in going public.
Fat chance.
When you make a living in the public — for better or for worse — your private life is part of your public life. When you share those glowing family photos with the world, you’re positioning yourself in a good light for those sponsors that are paying you millions of dollars.
In other words, you have given up the right to keep your private life completely private, especially when you’re a married guy, who had more phone numbers than the Yellow Pages.
The point here is, the public is looking for a little contrition.
The public might not forget but they will forgive.
So — my suggestion — speak up!
Handling the Oden story
Oden — unlike Woods — was a story for us to cover. Columbian reporter Brian Smith is our Blazers reporter.
Tuesday morning Brian was at the Blazers practice facility and, as is his custom, checked his Twitter feed and Google. On Google he heard some chatter from bloggers discussing Oden’s nude photos. It quickly spread to the media room.
Brian checked with our sports editor about the possibility of going with a story on it and the sports editor checked with me.
We decided there had to be some confirmation before we print. Bloggers rarely confirm. It’s mostly shoot first, confirm later for them.
Eventually a reporter asked a Blazers official about the photos. He said he was embarrassed.
Confirmation.
In addition, the Blazers moved quickly. They made Oden available to the press.
The story hit our Web site shortly thereafter. And it hit our paper the next day.
The point? Stuff on the Internet, even our site, will be looser than print. But we’ll check more than most.
Lou Brancaccio is The Columbian’s editor. Reach him at 360-735-4505 or lou.brancaccio@columbian.com.
