It wasn’t that long ago when Tiger Woods and Roger Federer were dominating their respective sports. Remember this great commercial? That was a Nike ad from 2007 when Tiger had 12 majors and Roger had 10. Now the scoreboard reads 16-14 in favor of Federer.
Roger has fallen to No. 3 in the world behind Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. He’s getting older, somewhat mentally weaker, and truthfully, Djokovic he’s been surpassed by Djokovic. Tiger has fallen off the map because of physical and mental problems. He hasn’t won a major since 2009 and now he’s switching caddies.
Not only are they no longer Nike’s dream team, they also are no longer friends. That’s what L. Jon Wertheim writes in a Sports Illustrated article.
“As the trajectories of their careers have changed, so it seems—sadly for fans—has the Federer-Woods friendship. When Federer speaks about Woods, he is, characteristically, benign, but it recalls Barack Obama’s distancing himself from Jeremiah Wright before the association affects his approval ratings. (That Federer and Mirka have socialized with Woods’s ex-wife, well, that says plenty.) On the rare occasion Woods talks about something other than golf these days, it’s not to mention the texts and needling his tennis-playing buddy.”
The news really isn’t all that surprising. As Chris Chase says at Busted Racquet, Federer comes across as a dedicated family man while Tiger turned out to be a womanizer. It really seems like Tiger is more of a match with Michael Jordan, whose gambling and partying is pretty well known. At least those two can socialize while still endorsing the same products. Roger seems to have moved on.
