Tiger Woods shows how athletes should handle politics

Woods was asked about his relationship with President Trump and responded, “Well, I’ve known Donald for a number of years. We’ve played golf together. We’ve had dinner together. I’ve known him pre-presidency and obviously during his presidency.”

After that, the Times reporter got more aggressive, asking “At times, especially in 2018, I think a lot of people, especially colored immigrants are threatened by him and his policy – what do you say to the people who might find it interesting that you have a friendly relationship with him?” (Notice how the reporter attempts to conflate illegal immigration with immigration in general and brings race into it).

To this, Woods responded, “Well, he’s the president of the United States. You have to respect the office. No matter who is in the office, you may like, dislike personality or the politics, but we all must respect the office.” The reporter then asked if Woods had anything to say about race relations in general and Woods said, “No, I just finished 72 holes and [am] really hungry.”

Of course, Trump praised Woods on Twitter afterward:

This is exactly the case: It’s clear based on the answers Woods gave that he did not want to say anything bad about Trump, nor did he want to get into politics in general. That should be applauded. His job is to golf professionally, not to explain himself for having a friendly relationship with Trump since before he was a political figure.

Ultimately, Woods had nothing to gain by either praising or bashing the president because there are millions of people who love him and millions of people who hate him. If Woods politicized himself, he would be less marketable in terms of endorsements because he might not have as wide of a fanbase. Consider how the NFL’s favorability rating in a poll from The Winston Group dropped from 57 percent in August of last year to 44 percent in one month because of widespread kneeling for the national anthem. Also consider that no NFL team wants to sign Colin Kaepernick because he’s such a polarizing figure that he’s not worth having around as a backup.

When pro athletes make political statements, they also don’t have any political pull. If they did, Ohio’s most notable pro athlete, NBA superstar LeBron James, endorsing Hillary Clinton in the state ahead of the 2016 presidential election may have actually meant something – especially because he was born and raised in Akron and still played for the Cleveland Cavaliers at the time. Instead, Trump had the best performance in the state for any presidential candidate since 1988.

As for Woods, it’s unclear where he stands politically. In addition to Trump, Woods has also golfed with past presidents like Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. In other words, Woods doesn’t pass up once-in-a-lifetime opportunities based on political differences. It’s unclear what disagreements he has with those men, but it’s for the best that the general public does not know the answer to that question.

The last thing Woods needs is more bad press, like he did when it was revealed he cheated on his now ex-wife. Maybe enduring that controversy has made him a little more careful when it comes to the press. Regardless, the only way pro athletes can ensure they don’t lose fans for political reasons is avoiding politics altogether – no matter how much agenda-driven reporters try to push them.

Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a freelancer writer who has been published with USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Federalist, and a number of other media outlets.