Is EA Sports phasing out Tiger Woods?

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Okay, so maybe I'm a little paranoid here, but I'm looking at the covers of the last three Tiger Woods golf video games, and it seems like EA Sports is showing us where they lie on the Tiger Woods situation. Even after losing numerous sponsors after his infidelity scandal, EA stood by him. But how much longer will they? Let's take a look at the covers:

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10: Pre-Incident
Five months before the madness began, Tiger was still one of the world's elite golfers, and it didn't look like anything would be changing; at this time, he had been the face of EA's golf franchise since 1999, and things weren't looking to change anytime soon.


Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11: Post-Incident
After the incident, a good number of Tiger's sponsors dumped him, as did advertisers, including Tag Heuer, Accenture, and Gillette. Although EA chose to stand by Tiger, they also took the opportunity to transfer some of their eggs to another basket. The basket in question is North Irish golfer Rory McIlroy. With Ryder Cup online play being introduced in Tiger Woods 11, this gave EA the perfect opportunity to begin a transfer of power from Woods to another rising star.


Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: Tiger Underperforms
Let's see....there's a little issue here......TIGER ISN'T EVEN ON THE COVER THIS YEAR. Moreover, Woods' name, normally front and center, has been relegated to the bottom of the box in smaller print. This could represent a pretty big shift in the game's title; the game may be renamed to get rid of Tiger altogether next year.

This shift has been gradual, and the only way Woods can reverse it is by winning. There's nothing else to apologize for, and the infidelity scandal is fully behind him. There's no more time to talk; Woods has to put up or shut up, or he'll be released from his EA endorsement deal for a brand new reason; he just can't play golf anymore.

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