While it appears that the flood of accounts from alleged mistresses may finally be drying up, the Tiger Woods saga is far from over. Woods’ marriage is still reportedly hanging by a thread and wife Elin Nordegren could leave him any day - though it now appears that she’ll wait until after the holidays if she is going to do anything at all.
Accenture has dropped Woods outright, and Gillette, Gatorade and Tag Heuer have all scaled back Woods as a company spokesman. AT&T has also made clear that its plans for Woods are in a holding pattern. But one company that has a significant contractual arrangement that no one seems to be talking about is EA Sports.
A week into the revelations of Woods’ infidelity, EA Sports, like Nike and Gatorade at the time, was still firmly in Woods’ camp with this public statement on Dec. 1: “Our strong relationship with Tiger for more than a decade remains unchanged. We respect Tiger’s privacy, we wish him a fast recovery and we look forward to seeing him back on the golf course.”
Now comes this statement from EA Sports last week: “We respect that this is a very difficult, and private, situation for Tiger and his family. At this time, the strategy for our Tiger Woods PGA Tour business remains unchanged.”
Obviously EA Sports’ support of Woods is waning. At least if the change in rhetoric is any indication.
Woods is the face of the EA Sports PGA TOUR golf game much the way John Madden has been for its NFL football franchise, with the game is similarly updated and re-released every year, so Electronic Arts will soon have to make a decision if it wants Woods to be the face of its 2011 product.
There’s certainly a possibility that Woods could still be facing a divorce and the prospect of more sordid details of his alt-lifestyle surfacing in the media. But for EA Sports, the biggest factor in maintaining its relationship with Woods may be the golfer’s recent announcement that he has halted his golf career indefinitely.
If Woods isn’t back on the course for 2010, it’ll be a hard sell going forward for EA to brand its signature golf game after Woods.
2:01 pm on December 21st, 2009
they better not cancel this game. I will be thoroughly pissed!
2:20 pm on December 21st, 2009
ea golf was around long before tiger was, just go back to calling it PGA Golf. Or maybe “Skinny John Daly golf 2011″
3:44 pm on December 21st, 2009
PGA tour golf sucked big time before tiger, and would not sell without him. All of these companies will com crawling back the mintue tiger starts wininng again. Remember Kobe anyone?
4:04 pm on December 21st, 2009
Hookers, yachts, prenups, motorcades, etc … it’s all really irrelevant at this point. Tiger’s biggest concern is the fact that his “aura of invincibility” has now been shattered … quite literally and quite utterly. Tiger Lovers must agree that his ability to “intimidate” has been a huge factor in his successes to date. But in going forward, I suspect that that will be no more. No longer will his competitors cower and allow him to carry the day, as has been the case so often in the past. If anything, they will now seek him out at “any and every” opportunity, armed with a new confidence and providence, that only the fool himself could have provided
4:21 pm on December 21st, 2009
Dear EA Sports,
I’m looking forward to my new edition of Tiger Woods ‘11……don’t eff it up for me.
Sincerely,
FromCT
5:48 pm on December 21st, 2009
I was considering buying a game system to play golf for the winter but not will defiitely not buy anything related to TW, no Nike cothers, shoes, balls, clubs, and definitely not the EA golf game. This is the only way that Tiger and his endorsers will know people don’t approve. Don’t buy anything from a company using Tiger ever again.
8:57 pm on December 21st, 2009
Rather that dumping Tiger, update the game to the new eldrick. Make it like Tiger Woods meets Leisure Suit Larry meets Grand Theft Auto.
Make it rated for adults.
This isnt that crazy of an idea. Play NCAA Football and you have to worry about phone calls to recruits, injuries, weather, etc etc.
If the game can incorporate road beef, lies to wife, and coming across incredibly controlling - then we have a deal.
Who;s with me !?!?!?!?!?
9:12 pm on December 21st, 2009
Brooks…get your facts straight. Accenture didn’t drop him. There contract was up so instead of just staying that they decided to kick him when he was down. Accenture was the company called Arthur Anderson…you know auditors of Enron that helped people lose thousands of dollars. Of course they closed that division and changed their name….kind of like calling the kettle black so to speak. As someone said…golf sucked before Tiger and without him it will not be the same…..but of course all of you self-righteous people the judge are so much better than us all…good grief. Move on. Oh and TWSucks your an idiot…really let me stop my life and listen to your crap. Wow what a hater…..
9:46 pm on December 21st, 2009
I will stop purchasing goods from any company who dropped Tiger. I never buy something because a celeb endorsed it but I respect someone standing by they’re friend or co-worker or client ie. NIKE. His personal life is none of our business. I hope he comes back and destroys his golf competition and laughs at the everyone.
4:29 am on December 22nd, 2009
Just so happens Tiger Woods is like all the rest of the over paid Black jocks.
White women and Sex are there games. Well they can all go to hell.
11:43 am on December 22nd, 2009
A Tiger Woods with a wounded image will still sell more copies than any other golfer.
Perhaps EA will realize that the game doesn’t need to be re-released every year unless there is some sort of real update to add.
But no, I don’t see a Padraig Harrington ‘11 Golf coming out.
12:52 pm on December 22nd, 2009
The demographic that buys TW golf couldn’t give two shits about his infidelity, in fact, most of them wish they could be even more like Tiger now.