Tiger, Terry & accountability

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While the web was abuzz with 'Tiger' jokes, I came across a pretty smart line that for me outlined what it meant for a sportsperson to deviate from his pre-eminent position, whether on or off the pitch. "With Federer losing, Thierry Henry cheating and Tiger crashing his car, is Gillete still 'the best a man can get'?"

Look at it closely and you'll see that it's the sponsors who are at the edge with allegations that have hit their celebrity endorsers. During the last decade, they put their money on Woods for his consistent below par performances. But such is the strength of an aphrodisiac cocktail containing money and fame that even Tiger gave in to his sponsor Nike's motto a tad too seriously, only to perform, as reports suggest, above par again and again.

Former English football captain John Terry, who lost his arm-band in 720 seconds, is accused of being a man, who according to a British Tabloid, 'appears to have discarded any pretence of a moral compass'.

Another one wrote: 'Unlike many footballers, he (Terry) now realises he breathes the same air as the rest of us mortals, who also have to be accountable for their actions.'

But really ask yourselves who is he accountable to?

I would imagine only to his wife and children. Not to us. Not the fans, not the media, and definitely not the advertisers.

There is a banner that habitually hangs from the Matthew Harding stand at Stamford Bridge. It reads: 'JT: captain, leader, legend'. It needs to be edited to 'JT: Leader, legend'. He may not have the captain's arm-band, but will that stop him from making tackles, winning headers or celebrating a goal with his team-mates? In a team sport, the arm-band allows the captain to escape the axe even with some below-par performances, but in an individual sport like Golf, there is no such chance. You're as good as your last putt.

The problem is that we view sports celebrities differently from the way in which we see other celebrities, especially from the field of entertainment. It's alright if celebrities from the entertainment world are seen with one partner today and with another tomorrow. Elizabeth Taylor could marry a countless number of men, yet she remains a larger-than-life celebrity and a movie legend. It's probably the nature of the business that allows us, the spectator, to endorse and even aspire the roles played on and off the screen. Match-making after all is quite a favourite past-time.

But mention this in sports and there the problem lies. Sports after all is supposed to be played within a set of rules. It teaches you to be a gracious winner and a good loser. And it is these set of rules that make us believe that sports is clean and wholesome. The advertisers and sponsors are the first to jump on to this. For them a sportsperson is an ideal endorser. Someone who will propel their sales. And it is they, who in turn market this idea to our psyche.

Before the Woods and Terry stories, basketball star Magic Johnson lost all his sponsors when he was diagnosed HIV positive in 1991 and a marijuana-smoking Michael Phelps was also put in the cold storage by the advertisers.

The Woods and Terry case has put the advertisers in a tizzy. How can the 'bad' boys of the sporting world endorse such clean, wholesome products as colas and burgers and sneakers and sportswear. That and nothing else is their dilemma. And that is being dished out to you and me.

It's a fact that sports and family life have never been easy bedfellows. There have been casualties in India as well. Even before he was ever accused of match-fixing, Mohammad Azharuddin caused a scandal by walking out of an arranged marriage and settling down with a Bollywood actress and Sourav Ganguly's touched breaking point when he was photographed at a temple with another film star.

I don't know why we believe our sports stars can do no wrong. As long as we didn't know about Tiger's philandering we applauded the stripes he earned teeing off. As long as we didn't know about Terry's stories, we were glued to the TV screens watching him lead Chelsea and England. So what has changed now?

The commercial advantage may have been lost. But their biggest battle is on the home front. And neither you nor I can do anything to mend it. Well maybe we can. Let's not crucify them. After all, we followed them for the joy they brought us, not because we had put our money on them.