Why so late, Tiger?

Tiger Woods seemed to say all of the right things in his press briefing this morning.

He apologized to just about everyone there is to apologize to. He said the ordeal was totally his fault and that his wife and children should be left alone. He said he needs to clean up his act. It seemed as if he was putting golf on the backburner.

Here’s the video of Woods’ briefing (no questions were allowed by the press) via ESPN.com:

Woods had a few interesting tidbits during the briefing — he was pretty direct about his wife, Elin, not hitting him on Thanksgiving night after all of this craziness broke out and he brought up Buddhism as a way of healing. He was especially candid about how he felt he was “entitled” to the temptations around him.

Said Woods in regards to how he thought he was “entitled”: I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply. I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn’t have to go far to find them.”

Seems like a candid remark. He felt like he could get away with anything, that he was “entitled” to anything, and that he was invincible. That pretty much is the way big-money athletes are perceived by many — that rich athletes get what they want, when they want it, with a feeling of invincibility cloaked around said athletes. It’s a shame Woods apparently fell victim to this.

I also thought that Woods being so forthright about his wife not hitting him — followed by Woods’ remarks about the media making things up about his wife hitting him — were interesting.

If I may, he’s where I interject.

Tiger, if you don’t want the media making stuff up, perhaps you should talk about the incident(s) in a timely fashion after the incidents occur. That way you set your story straight, and there aren’t nearly as many reports floating about that probably aren’t true. If any media outlet wants to say that you were hit by your wife, Elin, those reports’ validity are then taken into serious doubt because you already stated your side of the story.

And that’s why I find that Woods waiting nearly three months to say anything is odd. My radio show had on ESPN SportsCenter anchor and golf aficionado (and Maryland graduate) Scott Van Pelt in early December, and Van Pelt said then that Woods needed to come out and talk about the incident and set his story straight to curtail the media circus revolving around his incident(s).

Personally, I get if you want a couple of weeks to organize your thoughts and get yourself back on your feet. But after that, you have to at least try to set your story straight.

Tiger said all of the right things today. But why so late?