That's what Nike chairman Phil Knight has to say about the man in the woods
Tiger Woods won much-needed backing yesterday from the head of key sponsor Nike.
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Woods, a squeaky-clean marketing juggernaut, became the first billion-dollar athlete thanks to endorsements that have started to vanish even as the world's top golfer said he will take an indefinite break to work on personal issues.
"He has been really great. When his career is over, you'll look back on these indiscretions as a minor blip, but the media is making a big deal out of it right now," Phil Knight said.
His comments came after Accenture, a Dublin-based technology and management company, said on Sunday it was ending six years of ties with Woods because he was "no longer the right representative for its advertising."
Gillette said on Saturday it would phase Woods out of advertisements during his break from golf, calling it a supportive move.
AT&T, which backs Woods' own US PGA event, said in a statement, "We are presently evaluating our ongoing relationship with him." But Woods also received support yesterday from Tag Heuer, which said it planned to continue its relationship with him.
Knight called the admitted infidelity by Woods "part of the game" in the industry of endorsements. "One of the things we always try to do when we have a big endorsement is check out the character of the individual, but you're not going to get it right all the time. He was one we checked out and he came out clean."
| Mistress Rist apologises to Elin |
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Orlando: The latest gossip-page fodder in Tiger Woods' epic meltdown came when former alleged mistress Cory Rist appeared on the Today show, apologising to his wife Elin and saying Woods portrayed his marriage as falling apart in 2006. |
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