I  have always been a very independent person, and I typically choose to be the leader of the pack. However, I have decided to be a follower this week and become the 7,465th person to write an opinion piece about Tiger Woods.

My sentiments reflect anything but the popular response to the golfer’s predicament though. For starters, I am absolutely exhausted with all of the news surrounding Woods’ sex scandal. It’s really tiring to listen to national news sources report the same thing time and time again. He cheated on his wife with a lot of women. End of story. No one really cares about the mistresses and their personal business. We hardly care about Woods at this point, and he’s actually a celebrity.

Then there’s his pathetic attempt at an apology speech. It disgusts me to hear rumors that Woods’ conference potentially beat the Super Bowl in the number of viewers it had. It just goes to show how infatuated we are with negative news.

However, what is even more sickening was the speech itself. I know he wanted to sound professional, but a prepared speech? Really? If nothing else, his preparation made him sound like a heartless robot. No facial expressions, no voice inflections, nothing. At one point, it looked like he was attempting to cry, but even that seemed rehearsed. It’s too bad he didn’t allow questions. Maybe putting him in the line of fire would’ve sparked some emotion.

Woods made several apologies to people throughout the speech, all of which seemed meaningless, considering the above circumstances. However, what really gets me was his acknowledgement of his foundation and the young people it serves. Although many of the people he apologized to will need more than just a statement to forgive him, how can he possibly make up for being a terrible role model for kids? Woods has possessed the potential to influence young people’s lives for years, something very difficult to achieve as an athlete. Now that he’s thrown that down the drain, who are those kids supposed to look to for encouragement and inspiration?

Nevertheless, by the time Woods started talking about returning to Buddhism and getting sex therapy, I stopped paying attention. Once you spend more than 10 minutes sounding like an unemotional fool with a lack of priorities, you’re not worth listening to anymore. I’m pretty sure my feelings are summed up well by this week’s cartoon. Refer to it as necessary.

Finally, I probably wouldn’t be as fired up about the subject had the majority of people agreed with me. However, multiple news reporters are commending Woods for doing a great job in giving his apology. Did they actually watch it? Sure, Woods covered his bases in his apology attempts, but he did so in a manner that can hardly be taken seriously. It’s extremely frustrating as a future media mogul to watch reporters look past something like this and take it for face value. No wonder no one trusts the media.

At this point, I’m not sure I care if Woods goes back to golf. While he did a lot for the sport in terms of publicity (before the sex scandal, that is), golf will always be surrounded by negative media if he returns. Despite its lack of popularity, the world of golf deserves another shot at success, even without its greatest player.