What is Image?

Remember over 20 years ago, Charles Barkley did a commercial telling the world that he is not a role model.. He doesn't want to raise your kids and basically the fact that he can bounce a basketball and dunk it doesn't make him a role model. His "image" at first was ridiculed because most people thought that he was just running his mouth. Then more came out that he was saying that parents should be a role model more than athletes. A few years later Andre Agassi came out with the image is everything commercial commercials. The commercials were cool, but the media and other players came out saying that "winning is everything" mocking Agassi's inability to win the big tournaments. Most rap music of the 80's and early 90's talked about looking "fly"or stylish with hair cuts and hair styles. How one dressed determined if they were cool or "down". Black men would go out and by the African neck chains to show people that they were representing the mother land. What is Image? Do your clothing, language, attitude, wealth, success or failure make up an image? Is image created by the person? Is image created by the society one lives in? Lets dissect this a bit.
Andre Agassi is the perfect example of this question, especially now knowing what we know about him. He was always criticized for being more concerned about looking good than winning matches. He wore cutoff shorts and had long hair. The public loved him for his looks, flair and his"hair". He was a renegade because he refused to go to Wimbledon and wear the white shirt and shorts. Then of course the greatest irony is that winning Wimbledon is what legitimized his career shot holes through that image crap. He played to win. He just did not do it much as a young player when the American Tennis Federation wanted an American player to be like Connors or McEnroe. Now we learn that he had fake hair, hated tennis and a meth head. Can you imagine what the reaction would have been if his hair piece had fallen off his head? When he won the U.S. Open and Barbara Streisand was mentoring him and he cried and carried on like he did America cried too. Can you imagine if at that time we would have found out he was kicking his meth habit at the time? What would we have done? No one knew that the drug was prevalent then as it is today. He would have been destroyed you think. Listening to the excerpts from his book though he would have been relieved so he would not have to play tennis again. The image of Agassi was that he was tapping as much ass as he could get and did not care if he won matches or not. He was flashy and excitable and we loved it all. The reality was he was as miserable as a teething baby. We created his image so that now that he has confessed so much to us, that we look stupid for rooting for a guy who could careless about what we feel. When you win, it is not enough. Pete Sampras would win matches answer questions with as many one word answers he could think of and go running or just go home. Barry Sanders would just give the ball to the referee and he was deemed as "aloof" or indifferent because he did not celebrate like Emmit Smith or others. Agassi was our puppet. I wonder if he acted bratty or at the time when he was reeling if he said that he hated tennis would the public love him as they do now. I wonder if he never won a major if people would revere him like I do.
I keep hearing that Tiger's image is destroyed and he needs to go on Oprah or 60 minutes and explain his sins to save his image. Again what is Tigers image? I think that most people thought he was a "square" and that he was a robot. All he cared about was winning golf. "Second Sucks" is a quote that is attributed to him. I remember when he first came on the scene other golfers hated him because they did not want to answer questions about him. They did not at the time understand what kind of force he was about to be. When he won the Masters in record fashion, everyone stopped talking and started climbing on the Tiger express. When he "stuffed" that tee shot in a playoff to get his first win, everyone went crazy. Unlike Agassi Tiger won early and often and all of the players at the time got angry and not motivated to beat him. Hell David Duval fell apart. Justin and Phil took a bunch of years before they got their majors. How do we explain Tigers image? He did not have one in my opinion. I have seen every major athlete of the past 25 years at night club or bar and I have never seen Tiger. (any Golfer for that matter). I have been a bouncer for 14 years of my life and I find that hard to believe that I have not seen Tiger. I seen Jordan, Carl Lewis, Lance Armstrong, Tyson, Micheal Irvin, Magic, Kobe, De La Hoya, Danica, Serena, Roy Jones, Elway, McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, Jeter, no Tiger. I even worked on a Tom Cruise movie. Danced with Sandra Bullock. Body guarded Hef's table for a bunch of nights.. No Tiger. His situation is so unique and amazing at the same time. He is 33 years old and basically still the best player in the world. He is chasing history. This coming season, he needs 4 wins to pass Nicklaus for second o the all time wins list. He still needs 4 majors to pass Jack for all time for that. He is only 13 or 14 behind Sam Snead for all time wins. In other words, how many companies are going to abandon him and how many companies are still going to try and sign him? This will die down and if he wins the Masters and Elin is standing there holding their children and he gets hug, the world press will make it the world's moment and everything will be okay.. So once again I ask what is Tigers Image? Time will tell if he has one. Right now his image is that he is a horny bastard. If Elin leaves him she would get half his worth right? 500 million dollars... He would make that back in what 2 years? 3 years after he breaks all of the records. The difference between Agassi and Tiger to me is that I never knew Tiger. We only what he allows to see and hear about him. Agassi has been in my face for 25 years and I can chronicle his life and understand his rise and fall now. I was duped by him before and I did not care because he made me watch tennis. Tiger makes me watch golf because I he teaches me not to give up. I still don't know what image is.. O.J. Simpson had a great "image" too...