It is easy to be cynical when it comes to the Tiger Woods extramarital scandal. So let's try.
Those companies that were merely associated with him for his persona--for example, AT&T and watch maker Tag Heuer--have distanced themselves from the great golfer. However, those whose brands are of the sporting kind--for example, Nike--are banking that Woods will return to sporting glory and will make them even more money.
Which left Electronic Arts to ponder its next move.
Video games are hardly sport, but they depend on sport for much of their amusement. So it is surely no surprise to the cynic that EA announced Monday it will continue its association with Woods, at least for the near future.
According to the Associated Press, EA will release a new "Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online" game this month.
EA Sports President Peter Moore told the AP that the company will continue to work with Woods because he is "still one of the greatest athletes in history."
The company deftly swung around any comment on Woods' private life other than a single reference to "mistakes," and one can only imagine that EA is banking its golfing franchise on Woods' swift, rather than labored, return.
It's not as though a Phil Mickelson video game would sell quite as well. And a Stewart Cink video game, despite the fact that he won last year's British Open, might sell slightly less than a Charles Barkley golf instruction game.
That was the cynic talking, not me.