Tiger Woods last week signed an endorsement deal with Rolex and agent Mark Steinberg has indicated that more deals could be coming in the future, but ESPNW.com's Viv Bernstein asks, “Can someone please explain why?” Woods is not a "dominant golfer anymore," as he "hasn't won a tournament since before the accident” on Thanksgiving '09 that launched his sex scandal. Signing one or two endorsements does not mean Woods "has made it back as a pitchman,” and he is unlikely "to be hauling in the $100 million or so he reportedly made annually back in his heyday.” Woods currently “might be a bargain to sign while his game is down,” but why is Woods "suddenly a credible spokesman, no matter how he plays?" While Woods draws fans to the course and television sets, the fact that fans "want to watch, doesn't mean we want to buy." Watching athletes compete is “not the same as trusting or approving or even liking them,” and watching is “not the same as buying.” Bernstein writes any company “that wants to slap a logo" on athletes like Woods, Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger, Eagles QB Michael Vick and former NFLer Brett Favre "is announcing to women -- and anyone else who believes that behavior matters, regardless of talent, that it doesn't care if those athletes have probably offended millions with their antics.” Bernstein: “A lot of us are never going to buy a watch endorsed by Woods, jeans endorsed by Favre, or shoes endorsed by Vick -- precisely because of those deals” (ESPNW.com, 10/11).
BEHIND THE GAME: EA Sports announced a promotion last week where fans can vote among 16 golfers -- eight from the U.S. and eight from the European market -- to determine who will share the cover with Woods in its “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13.” EA Sports Dir of Marketing Craig Evans said, "There are hundreds and hundreds of golfers and they're all independent contractors, so it's not like we can just go to the NFLPA and say who we want for the game. So what we did is we took a list [of] the guys who we are going to have in our game this year and we took the cream of the crop, talked to their representatives and wanted to see if they were excited by this opportunity. They were, and we didn't have a single guy turn us down. That's how we got our 16 guys" (ESPN.com, 10/10).
BANG FOR THEIR BUCK: Woods played in the PGA Tour Frys.com Open last week, and Golf Channel’s Erik Kuselias said Frys.com was among the winners from the tournament. Kuselias said, “Sponsorship works if you can get lucky and be good and when you get Tiger Woods showing up, and he plays four days and you get this hot dog incident ... the idea is it's sort of fun and people are talking about it.” He added, “All that they’re saying is ‘Frys, Frys, Frys, Frys, Frys, Frys.’ They’re getting a lot of bang for their buck. They could not have imagined that it would be this good when they signed up for this week and sponsored this tournament” (“Morning Drive,” Golf Channel, 10/10).
