Tiger Woods and athletes as role models

Fighting for top story honors this week along with the upcoming vote on ObamaCare and rising gasoline prices -- which shot up 20 cents per gallon to $3.09 in my area within a 24-hour period (I guess it's OK to be in oil futures again) -- was our favorite philandering golfer, Tiger Woods.

Tiger announced that he'll be returning to the links for the prestgious Masters in early April. It'll be the first PGA Tour event in which Tiger will compete since all the revelations surfaced just after Thanksgiving about his numerous sex-capades with women other than his wife.

Famous athletes juggling multiple partners -- and in several cases, procreating multiple offspring from those partners -- is nothing new. I found a story on faniq.com, which provides a comprehensive list of former and current jocks who have fathered illegitimate children. According to the story, NFL running back Travis Henry  fathered nine children by nine different women ... all by the age of 28. Boxer Evander Holyfield has nine illegitimate kids, while former Chicago Bulls player Jason Caffey has eight kids from seven different women.

The list is quite long -- and shocking. If you want to delve more into it, check out the story at: http://www.faniq.com/blog/Athletes-With-Illegitimate-Kids-The-Comprehensive-List-Blog-17243

Then there's the late Wilt Chamberlain (left), who claimed in his autobiography that he had sex with 20,000 women (causing someone to jokingly ask if that number included the playoffs, or just the regular season). If Chamberlain's claim is, pardon the pun, legitimate, it's difficult to believe Wilt the Stilt didn't father a few children along the way. Magic Johnson, the former Los Angeles Lakers' star who remains a widely admired celebrity, admitted after testing positive for the HIV virus in the early 1990s that he had multiple sex partners during his career.

Tiger Woods' dalliances, which he rightly deemed "irresponsible and selfish" -- and are particuarly troubling because of his family-man image -- don't seem quite as shocking when put into the context of what other famous athletes have done. Portions of Woods' 13-minute mea cupla last month appeared to be staged (see video above, right). The cynic in me says he only issued a public apology because he got caught, but I'll give him this much: at least he took full responsibility for his behavior. It's also admirable that he's receiving treatment at a sex rehabilitation clinic, and is trying to reconcile with his wife.

But it's going to take a while before Woods restores his tarnished public image. I can't blame him for getting angry with paparazzi vultures who followed his 2 1/2-year-old daughter to school and reported the school's location. However, he better find a way to handle the scrutiny because this story won't go away the moment he steps into the tee box at Augusta National. He can't keep the media -- mainstream or otherwise -- at arm's length forever. And as much as golf is a gentleman's game, you can bet a fan or two will eventually utter something besides "You Da Man!" as Tiger walks past them on his way to 18th green.

Tiger Woods' saga once again brings to the surface the debate of whether or not professional athletes are role models. Ideally, a child's role model should be his or her mother and father, grandmother or grandfather, a teacher, a coach ... someone with whom he or she is in regular, if not daily, contact and provides guidance and influence.

Yet generations of children have grown up idolizing athletes, and athletes have to realize that kids look up to them, whether they see themselves as role models or not. Most professional athletes also are thrust into the public spotlight -- but that's part of the job, too, whether they like it or not.

I don't expect athletes to live squeeky-clean lives. That said, I don't think it's too much to ask athletes to conduct themselves in a respectable manner on the court or on the field ... and in public venues (which an overwhelming majority of them do).

Athletes like Woods are entitled to privacy, particularly when it involves family. But if an athlete's private behavior is reckless, and that athlete knowingly puts himself (or herself) in compromising situations, they shouldn't expect to be treated like an average 9-to-5 citizen if their dirty laundry is ever hung out to dry. Especially if an athlete is world famous, like Tiger Woods.

The moral of the story for athletes, celebrities and other public figures is this: think before you act. It's a TMZ world out there, with Facebook, Twitter, Google Profiles, cell phones, cell phone cameras, text messaging and video cameras -- and creepy paparazzi -- around every corner.

What do you think? Please leave your comments.