Tiger Woods has taken a lot of heat over an incident in which he handed fellow golfer Justin Thomas a tampon during the Genesis Invitational on Thursday. Woods didn’t do himself too many favors by offering up an “if I offended anyone” apology afterward, and one person who did not think much of the “joke” or the apology was Olympian Michael Johnson.
“Apology starting with ‘If I offended anyone’ is no apology. But this is Tiger. Never been a leader and he’s Teflon,” Johnson wrote Friday on Twitter. “Still heralded after all the mistakes so he’s learned nothing. Media focus always on miraculous recovery. Never why the need for recovery.”
Apology starting with “If I offended anyone” is no apology. But this is Tiger. Never been a leader and he’s Teflon. Still heralded after all the mistakes so he’s learned nothing. Media focus always on miraculous recovery. Never why the need for recovery. https://t.co/nFkgo3xtWo
— Michael Johnson (@MJGold) February 18, 2023
“It was supposed to be a funny game, but obviously it hasn’t turned out that way,” Woods said in his apology. “If I offend anybody, it was not the case. It was just friends having fun.
“If I offend anybody in any way, shape, or form, I’m sorry. It was not intended to be that way. We play pranks on one another all the time. Virally, I think this did not come across that way, but between us, it’s different.”
There have been plenty of worse things to get upset about, but Woods’ inability to see how using a feminine hygiene product to represent a lack of strength or ability isn’t a great look.
Johnson won four Olympic gold medals and is the only male athlete in history to win both the 200 meters and 400 meters events at the same Olympics.
