I Apologize If Anyone Was Offended

Public apologies are almost a daily occurrence.   And the apologies themselves range from the sublime to the absurd, making saying “I am sorry” almost meaningless.

Phil Mickelson apologized for implying that due to new U.S. and California tax laws, he would be retiring from golf and moving out of California, saying the comments should have remained private.

“Finances and taxes are a personal matter and I should not have made my opinions on them public,” Mickelson, a winner of four major golf titles, said in a statement released today by his management company. “I apologize to those I have upset or insulted and assure you I intend to not let it happen again.”

Sounds like Phil is more sorry about the firestorm he started over what millionaires should be paying in taxes than about what he said.  Does it help or hurt Phil’s case that Tiger Woods, himself very familiar with public apologies, has stepped forward to back him up?

ESPN apologized recently.  During the Alabama-Notre Dame championship football game, the camera panned to the Alabama quarterback’s girlfriend in the stands.  Brent Musberger, calling the game, pointed out her beauty.

“When you’re a quarterback at Alabama … you see that LOVELY lady there … she’s also Miss Alabama .. and that’s A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend. Wow, I’m telling, you quarterbacks, you get all the good lookin’ women.  Wow.”

In a statement, ESPN said that while it tries to capture “interesting story lines … we apologize that the commentary in this instance went too far and Brent understands that.”

Um, she’s Miss Alabama.  She has made a career of being looked at; in fact ESPN knew who she was and where she was sitting when they focused a camera on her in the middle of a championship football game!  Musberger himself offered no apology, nor did he co-sign or even acknowledge the ESPN apology in any way.  Good for him.

After the New England Patriots took a beating from the Baltimore Ravens, Anna Burns Welker, former Hooters model and wife of Pats player Wes Welker, pointed out on a private Facebook page that Ray Lewis of the Ravens is not a role model. Well, duh.  Six kids by four mothers and a double murder kind of takes you out of the running to be an Eagle Scout. (Sidenote to Anna: One of your FB friends is not your friend.) Anna, after the private post became very public, apologized.

“I’m deeply sorry for my recent post on Facebook,” Burns told Larry Brown Sports in a statement. “I let the competitiveness of the game and the comments people were making about a team I dearly love get the best of me. My actions were emotional and irrational and I sincerely apologize to Ray Lewis and anyone affected by my comment after yesterday’s game.”

Deeply sorry? Why? Your comments were anything BUT irrational! Why should you have to apologize to Ray Lewis–or anyone–for stating facts?  Now calling him a hypocrite for crying and praying on camera (at least I think he was saying “thank you Father”) before the game like I did may have required an apology because really, hypocrite is a hurtful word. So I apologize if anyone was offended by my calling Ray Lewis a hypocrite, and remember:

“A stiff apology is a second insult… The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.”