Las Vegas 

        They are both legends, forever famous, and each with demons that have significantly disrupted their lives. I spent the day today, like so many, with controlled images of Tiger Woods; and I spent tonight surrounded by the music and very controlled images of Elvis Presley.

       I don’t think it is a complete coincidence that as I watched the mostly upbeat and entertaining “Viva Elvis” from the Cirque Du Soleil people here in Las Vegas tonight, I kept thinking about Tiger Wood’s remarks earlier in the day.

    “I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to,”  was part and parcel of Tiger’s confession. It seems Elvis Presley lived much the same way, but at least initially in a more innocent way.

    “I thought I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy the temptations around me,” said Tiger.  By virtue of the film clips seen in “Viva Elvis,” my guess is that Elvis certainly enjoyed his temptations too.

    “My failures have made me look at myself in a way I never have before,” said Tiger clearly in the midst of deep therapeutic treatment to try and change his ways. And maybe this is where the similarities end. My sense is that Elvis never really did look at himself, and as he descended into a variety of personal abuses, there was no one around to tell him, to catch him, and make him turn his life around. As you may recall, Elvis Presley died when he was 42 years old. An autopsy revealed that he had 10 different prescription drugs in his system in enormous quantities.

    Elvis Presley, in death, is now a packaged and very profitable commodity. But, to not overstate the obvious, he is dead. Tiger Woods may have made the first steps today to crawl out of an extraordinary hole, and presumable when he turns 42, Woods will be alive and healthy and hopefully with an in-tact family life.

   The world’s of press and publicity have been completely different for Tiger and for Elvis, and while I think much of the media coverage today has been excessive, at least the press did not look the other way, when all of Tiger’s demons surfaced to the forefront. For Elvis, the press did look the other way, until it was too late. 

   Here’s hoping that for Tiger himself, and all those he has harmed and hurt; the ultimate outcome will be better than the fate of Elvis. Maybe they won’t be so similar after all.