dancing but kara "okaraoke. >> i hate it. >> that's why we're doing it. >> i'll see you monday. "larry king" starts now. good evening. we continue with breaking news. i'm jim moret from inside edition. golf superstar tiger woods' bombshell announcement that he'll take an indefinite break from golf. he admits publicly tonight that his infidelity has caused hurt and disappointment to his wife, children and his fans. we'll have his full statement for you in just a moment. what happens next for tiger and the sport he clearly loves so much. will his career, his marriage and his brand survive? we'll have a full panel of guests ready to discuss of this. but the first, the very latest with susan candiotti. she's been following this breaking story. susan, what's the latest? >> reporter: all of this began on thanksgiving night. two weeks later, as tiger woods' personal life crashing around him. first, he spoke of final lely we have this

statement. first, he spoke of transgressions. for the first time, he's admit to infidelities. here's how his statement reads in full, quote --

>> so, again, it's been quite a two weeks for tiger woods. the question, of course, is what difference this will make in the public's eyes and in the os of his family. >> i'm looking at the statement and i see tiger is asking forgiveness from his fans and the pga tours. any fallout from the sponsors? >> of course, i think we recognize that no one has seen any tiger woods commercials for the past couple of weeks. and we know that the gatorade has decided not to sponsor its tiger drink anymore. but they said they made that decision before this all began. be that as it may, we're getting some postings to tiger woods'

sw website. that's where he posted this statement. already, i would say that the comments are pretty much 50/50. half in favor, half in not. some are saying, good choice on your part to take this hiatus. others are saying, maybe you learned your lesson but at what cost to your family? >> jim: susan candiotti reporting tonight. thanks, susan. our expert panel, sports columnist for "usa today" christine brennan, and david ducek. here with me in los angeles, my friend howard bragman, celebrity pub cy publicist. howard what you do you think? i know you're critical on how he handles this from the beginning. you want to get in front of this story. he's behind this from the get-go. >> this has been a textbook case of misery for tiger woods. when i look at pr, it's like a doctor, what's the result that you want at the end? if i'm tiger woods, what i want is this story to go away more

than anything. and this act he did today is making this is a much bigger story as opposed to a smaller story. and anything that makes it a bigger story has got to be bad from a pr point of view, jim. >> jim: christine brennan, what's your take on this announcement. were you surprised? >> i'm surprised. i'm glad for tiger in the sense it sounds like he's addressing this issue and meeting it head-on. yesterday in a column, i wrote he should take six months or a year off, i know that sounds harsh and shocking to sports fans and the people that say he'll be fine and show up and everyone will forgive and forget. fans, who say he'll be fine. i think this shows the magnitude of the problem. i think that tiger and his team are starting to get how big this deal is. the fact that he used infidelity for the first time instead of transgressions, there's another step. it shows a little window in orlando in his world, the bunker he's in right now, how bad

things are and how they seem to be getting it. good for him on the one level if he's really going to focus on his family. >> jim: plus, maybe, he read your column. david, clearly more people are playing attention to golf now than ever before. but that's always been the case with tiger woods. do you think he's hurt the sport? and hurt it indefinite? >> i don't think he's hurt the sport indefinitely. certainly in the short run his absence will hurt the sport and hurt the pga tour and television he ratings and you could make an argument it could hurt some of his sponsors by him not being out in front and being seen and pitching products and doing what he does best, which is golf tournament, and then the brands associated with him don't get the exposure they hope to get. that's a downside. if he's able to come back at some point in the future, six months or a year from now, we certainly don't know at this point. to win again and get something positive going in his life, certainly having brands

associated with that, they'll get the benefit from that. in the short run the sport of golf will see lower television numbers and general buzz around the sport will be down. no question about it. >> jim: david, what do you make of this statement? the fact is he would have never made this statement had the incident on thanksgiving night happened and all these other women came out of the woodwork and he got caught, i suppose. he had to say something. he waited a long time. did he wait too long in your view? >> i think he may have waited too long. i agree it would have been beneficial to get out in front of the story if possible. one thing that we're losing sight of is just how big the story is. i think we all presumed when the first reports of infidelity came out, we're talking about one case or two cases. we don't know all of the facts. now it's being reported 10, 11 people involved in the case. the magnitude of this story is staggering. when you step back and think about it. it would be very difficult, very

unlike tiger woods and the way his people and his inner circle have worked throughout his career to go out and invite the press onto his front lawn or to hold a press conference someplace and open himself out to all types of questions and scrutiny. that's not the way they historically operated. so, i don't know what they could have done to make this story get smaller. he needs to get this story to go away. i don't see a way this story goes away for a while. >> jim: howard, what do you do? if you represented tiger woods, i can imagine the screaming and yelling behind closed doors. what do you tell him right now? let's say you get him today as a client, and all the damage is done. >> well, i think you work backwards from the point. first of all, you play the inside game. work on your family. work on your kids and your wife. work on your sponsors. then, go a little bigger and start to work on your fans. hopefully you have an idea that he's taking a few months off, three months off or six months

off. that day's going to have to come when he is going to have to meet the public and do the interview. >> jim: you start preparing for that day today? >> no, i think you start working on your family right now. you have to get a thick skin for the next couple of months. you're going to say, i'm not going to read a newspaper, not going to turn on the tv and i'm going to do the business at hand. i'm going to walk the walk. i'm going to make breakfast and change the diapers. and be the best husband that ever was for a little while. >> jim: i'm jim moret from inside edition filling in for larry king. we'll be back with more on tiger woods on this breaking news edition of "larry king live." stay with us. last thanksgiving, about 2 million people tried...

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>> jim: welcome back to larry king live. i'm jim moret sigtting in for larry. christine brennan, we reported earlier today on "inside edition" that tiger woods may be leaving country with his wife elin on their $22 million yacht. getting out of the country. getting out of dodge. trying to make the first steps to repair their marriage and then this announcement that tiger woods is leaving golf indefinitely. from your perspective, what does his departure mean and then as a woman, he has a lot more work to do at home than on golf course clearly.

>> certainly as a sports journalist looking at tiger, this is the punctuation mark, the exclamation point on the wildest sentence we have seen maybe ever in sports. this tiger woods saga, the greatest fall from grace, i believe, in the history of sports of an athlete. i know others have other ideas, but this is extraordinary. these two weeks are stunning. for golf, this is a huge blow. the game is kind of reeling, anyway with the economy, the sponsor. there's no sponsor name, jim. on the tournament in san diego that would have been his first coming back in january. this isn't going to help. tv ratings will go down. it hurts the game. on another level, who cares? it's about a man, his family. that's the image of greatest icon in our culture in sports. >> jim: christine, weren't you surprised to suggest that his wife would be leaving with him on a yacht, i mean, i can't any on a yacht? i can't think of any place i would rather less be than on a boat in the middle of the ocean, the two of them.

i think they need to be in counseling, need some discussion time, but not necessarily alone in the middle of the sea. >> i agree. but that's their decision. but keep in mind, here's a man that's 34 in a couple of weeks and he's not a 22-year-old frat boy. the fact that he's lived this life, however bad it is, the numbers that we have been hearing, however bad it is, he's clearly wanted to live that kind of life. what a remarkable change for tiger woods obviously, i would say it's for the better. i think a lot of people would agree to have more of a settled life would probably good for tiger woods. but he's living a high-wire act, and he's been loving it. on the golf course, off the golf course. this is an extraordinary change for a man who's prominent in america culture. >> jim: david, we don't think of golfers as playboys, but i guess

that has changed this week, too. >> yeah, in this particular case, it's shown that there are groupies and such like that, more than basketball and football, the sports normally associated with that kind of behavior with, in speaking generalities when you get athletes who have this amount of money, oftentimes, they get this amount of money, millions of dollars at a very young age, it doesn't matter if they're football, basketball, hockey, or in some cases golf or sports you wouldn't associate that kind of behavior with. people are people across the way, and oftentimes in some cases, unfortunately, they give into some of the same temptations regardless of what sport they pursue. >> jim: howard bragman. christine talked about the fall from grace. tiger woods is a great athlete. he doesn't speak much but he represents a lot of products. we put him up there on this pedest pedestal, and we haven't knocked him down. it's through his own actions. what does he do to try and repair that damage, or can you

repair that? >> they're only building you up to knock you down. that's one of my ten commandments. >> jim: but he did this? >> but we all do this. >> jim: come on. >> we're all guilty of something. the point being is, we're human beings. we're going to screw up at some point in our lives, okay? when you do, you have to go repair the internationl damage come forward with a sincere and credible apology. >> jim: have you heard the apology yet? >> we're not there yet. he's still repairing the internal damage. i think this guy is in shock. i think he's going to posttraumatic stress disorder. for someone who's had a controlled image to have hell break loose for this guy, you don't absorb this right away. i have been around a lot of people who have been deal with big celebrities, and they're as shocked as the rest of us are. this isn't something that you deal with overnight. the one thing is, i'm glad he's

dealing with it. but time is going to work to his side. he's not a politician. we didn't elect him to office because of his moral terpitude. we did because he's the best player in the history of the golf, and as long as he can play golf well again and he apologizes, we'll forgive him. >> jim: coming up a former pga golfer weighs in. what does it mean for the sport? larry king live returns in 60 seconds. stay with us. on tough pain works faster than tylenol rapid release gels. and not only faster. stronger, too. relief doesn't get any better than this. advil. by changing her medicare prescription plan. all we had to do was go to cvs.com and use the free savings calculator. we learned that changing your medicare part d plan could save an average of $612. woman: we just entered my prescriptions, and it compared plans for us. it was easy to find the right plan for the prescriptions i need.

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busters and has had such an impressive run. what does this do long term to his legacy in your view? >> i think it's going to be difficult to set up what he did from playing golf. to break jack's record. >> jim: jack meaning jack nicklaus? >> correct, jack nicklaus' 18 major championships and he's well on his way to doing that with 14 major championships. the strongest asset that any athlete can have is to be bulletproof and having a clear mind. for the first time this year, we have seen that tiger woods has been human. he was overtaken in the final round of the pga championship. everybody was scratching their heads, and perhaps what was going on in his pivot life had to do with that. >> jim: he came back from injury successfully. he's won a couple of majors since, right? >> that's right.

he won the u.s. open on a broken leg, and he has come back from previous injuries. again, the most important attribute any athlete can have is what's going on between their head. maybe he can win an u.s. open with a broken leg. i doubt that he can compete very successfully with a broken psyche. forget about his image for a moment. if we're just talking about govl, what has transpired in the last couple of weeks is going to affect his golf, it's going to have a huge impact. >> jim: but golf is caught up in image. so much protocol. golf tournaments and the crowd is in hush tones. everybody's respectful. does this taint the sport? do his fellow golfers -- are they angry, do you think? >> yeah, i think there will be some disappointment amongst his peers for sure. i think there will be some anger, but the larger picture is and a number of people have spoken to this. christine brennan spoken to it. people are human. we live in a very forgiving society.

all we want to see is that somebody is contrite. >> jim: have you seen that yet? >> following tiger woods so closely in his first statement on his website, he used language that i've never heard him use before. he's always been quite kurt. anytime he talks to anybody about anything that he thinks is digging to deeply. he used things like i'm deeply sorry with all my heart. i do believe, given what transpired today, that he's contrite, he understands that he cannot continue to live this irresponsible life. i think we live in a very forgiving society. look what letterman did. >> jim: but david letterman in fairness, came out publicly and spoke to his audience. but tiger woods hasn't spoken to his audience personally except for a website. >> that's it. i think tiger needs to get in front of this story to use

howard bragman's term. that's it, get in front of this story and take the initiative. get out there and be open with people. tiger woods has always been closed. he never lets anybody get too close. indeed if you ask a question that he feels digging too deep, he banishes you from his circle. he has a way of doing that. he needs to get out in front of this story. he needs to talk to people and tell people openly how he feels and what he's going to do. all we've gotten from him were two statements on his website. i think he can do a much, much better job of handling this than that. >> jim: do you think that he should be banned for any period of time? >> oh, gosh, no. any time we attach moral strength to athletic achievement, we're setting ourselves up for failure. you look at the vast array of people befell by infidelity.

the list goes on and on. east he's human, and as a human he has the chance and ability to change his behavior. he just needs privacy and time to do that. >> thanks for time. >> thank you. >> we have the statement from pga tour commissioner, tim finchman regarding tiger woods. let me read it now. not to use one. >> we'll be right back with more on this developing tiger woods story right after this. we used one just last night. it was awesome. knowing you're safe makes it even more pleasurable. hey, the guys on my team, we'll share the same one... for like a month at a time.

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it's terrible news for television -- first of all, let's not forget what he's got to do at home and take care of his family and himself. take care of himself and his family. in terms of the business world, the golf world, it's a disaster. the eight months he was off with his injuries, television ratings went down 50%. you know what 50% means in this these times? people are going to lose jobs. advertising revenue goes down. it's not golf. to be honest with you, it's not golf without tiger. >> jim: do you think his sponsors will stick with him in the long run? >> in the long run, anything's possible by the way. this country loves a comeback. this country loves somebody who is contrite and comes forward. in the long run, fine. short term, probably not so fine. i think we're already seeing people take his face off of websites, and the other thing is you're not seeing tiger's commercia

commercials. that's business. tiger knows that. >> jim: pat, when you talk about the comeback, i mean, let's face it the bad news is still, we haven't hit bottom on this yet? as far as the bad news goes. he's trying to get in front of the story, i don't know where we'll be on monday. >> howard bragman is certainly right once again. you know, that's what he had to do. that deadline has passed. getting in front of the story is long gone. as a respected newsman, two weeks only into the story, this how far we have come, i think this would not have happened had tiger gotten out in front of the cameras like kobe did, like everybody else did, get out, let us see your face, be contrite, people love comebacks if you do it correctly. >> jim: you have spoken to tiger many times. were you stunned like most of us when we heard the early allegations and then saw the story unravel given your perception of this guy as a person? >> that's a triple-edge

question there. given my perception of who he is, yes. but given my perspective -- i can't talk here. it's too cold in southern california. how about that? but getting the perspective of a billionaire athlete on the road all the time is a different story. everybody's got their own thing. i wasn't stunned. but, given the image that he has, i was surprised. >> jim: pat o'brien, old friend, great broadcaster and sportscaster. thanks for your time joining us tonight on the phone. we just received a statement from nike. tiger has been a part of nike for more than a decade. he's the best golfer in the world and one of the greatest athletes of his era. we look forward to his return to golf. he and his family have nike's full support. we'll be back with more right after this. (announcer) take your time to find the right time with cialis for daily use...

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>> jim: welcome back to larry king live. i'm jim moret from inside edition. we're talking about the developing tiger woods story. his announcement late today that he's giving up golf indefinitely and trying to repair his home life and his personal life. we have a caller now from saddle river, new jersey, for our panel. your question? >> caller: yes, do you think if tiger came out publicly from the

onset would he still playing golf and not having to this make this decision? >> howard bragman, that's a good question. >> i think he'd still be going through a lot. it was very clear from the very first moment this accident happened that we were at a loss for the truth. okay, no one buying it from early on. you'll have to deal with it. but he would have a lot more credibility and sympathy than he has now. >> jim: christine brennan, i want to put some perspective on this, tiger woods was in this accident. he was injured. police didn't know if his injuries were consistent with a car accident. leading you to suspect that perhaps his wife might be charged with domestic violence. tiger couldn't come out publicly early on. given that, given the caller's question, could he have done anything else? >> i don't know if he could have. at the time a lot of us were saying where is he? this is the ultimate pr machine. are they blowing this one and why?

and i think what we have seen, is that, as you said, jim, we don't know if we have hit rock bottom yet, if tiger had spoken out those first couple of days, how silly he would have looked as the tabloid and internet stories have kept coming. many many ways he knew how bad it was. you can almost picture him with his lawyers on the couch at his house in orlando and how many more and what's her name and what about this? as that was going on, you could see a scenario that legally they decided not to say anything because it was so bad. >> jim: jim gray, a sportscaster for golf channel is joining us by phone for palm springs. jim, you interviewed tiger, you said, i believe, he was 8 years old. the first time you spoke with him. >> that's correct. >> jim: what's your perspective? >> i think it's a sad day for sports and golf. we were looking at the greatest athlete of our era.

the michelangelo of golf. to have him step aside because of self-induced problems here, and i think there's a sapdness, and i think that we've never seen anything like this. this has been a fall from grace. the likes of which we have never seen in such a short period of time. i think it's important to remember if you look back at michael jordan when he had to leave the game by his own volition, there were gambling allegations. of course, his father has been tragically murdered. he decided to play baseball. he was tired of dealing with the bulls management and terry krous. he stepped away and came back. that was at the height of his career. basketball's a team game. golf is an individual game. he came back and went on to win three championships. if we're looking at from that perspective, there is a precedent. if he can get his head right, maybe we haven't seen the end or the best of tiger woods. this is certainly a major, major bump in the road. i have known for some time, tiger hates the scrutiny.

the hates the microscope he lives in, the fishbowl. he was going to break that record and walk away as soon as possible. now he may not break the record, but this doesn't surprise me at all because he's been tired tf long before this scandal hit. >> jim: howard, 40 seconds left, we heard nike is standing by him. that's about 30 million of his $110 million annual income. that's good news? >> that's great news. nike's doing the right thing. they're one of the classiest companies out there. there's no charges of anything illegal. let me say, if every professional athlete left the game because of infidelity, we wouldn't have enough players whatever sport. so i think nike is doing the right thing right now. >> jim: what do you at home think about tiger woods' decision to take a break from golf? cnn dot k

cnn.com/larrykink. stephen a. smith joins us next. we'll be right back. we have wind. we have solar, obviously. we have lots of oil. i think natural gas is part of the energy mix of the future. i think we have the can-do. we have the capability. we have the technology. the solutions are here. we just need to find them here. band now we're insuring overts do18 million drivers. gecko: quite impressive, yeah. boss: come a long way, that's for sure. and so have you since you started working here way back when. gecko: ah, i still have nightmares. anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

>> jim: welcome back to larry king live. stephen a. smith is a sportscaster. a nationally syndicated radio show host for fox sports radio and a columnist for "the philadelphia ininquiquirer."

stephen, what's your perspective on this? do you think tiger, he's put himself in exile. do you think he should be banned from the game? >> that's absolutely ridiculous. he shouldn't be the banned. he's the best in the game. the fact of the matter is, none of these endorsement deals would have been available to him if he wasn't the best in the game. that's not to condone what he did. at the end of the day, we're concerned and the reason we care about tiger woods in the first place was because he's the greatest golfer arguably of our lifetime. arguably of our lifetime. that's what it comes down to. there's nothing that takes away from his exploits as a golfer. >> jim: but, clearly, your view of him as a person has shifted in the last couple of weeks? >> i don't think there's no question about that. he's come across as a bit phony to say the least. that's just being kind about it. to come out with the story he came out with originally as opposed to telling the world it was a personal issue, mind your business and leaving it at that. that made him look relatively weak. he tried to talk about his wife being a hero and trying to

deflect attention away from him. that was admirable. she probably, in my estimation, she was probably beaten down and why he couldn't get into that accident. afs bit woozy before he jumped into the escalade. whether it was him or his pr machine, clearly he was given some bad advice or followed some things that were simply unwise, and he came across as a bit phony he. every day, it seemed a different woman was coming out. that made him look that much more worse. clearly, his image has taken a major hit. it will be a long time, if ever, if he recovers in that regard. but he's still the best golfer in the world. as long as he wins, he'll continue to make money. >> jim: as long as he continues to win. jim gray from the golf channel. do you agree with stooech stephen a. smith that tiger woods came off as a phony or hypocrite in some way? >> you have to understand his perspective. a guy who's been in total control his whole life. when he shows up at a tournament, it's success.

when he does not, it's not a success. when he's on television, the ratings are through the roof. whether he doesn't show up, they struggle for sponsors. there's a crisis right now on the pga tour with sponsors. now it's a bigger crisis. tiger missed most of last year with his knee, came back and it was a huge success again. he's in total control of absolutely everything that goes on in his professional and probably personal life he. for the first time ever, he's no longer at the switches. everybody else is telling him what to do, how to handle it, what's the next step? how do you go about things now? his wife has a bigger say now. everything has changed for him. so, the card and the hands that he was dealt overnight, because of his behavior, all of this self-induced, changed the playing field. and he's not used to it. >> i would to interject there. i can appreciate and respect where jim is coming from. the fact is, we don't have to understand where he's coming from. he never extended any level of effort to make us to try

understand him. he wanted us to believe about him what he wanted us to believe about him. the reason i feel so passionately about that, to me, that's his personal business. he should have told the world to mind their business. that's the problem i have with him. when you talk about his image in terms of being in control and losing control, this is a man who went about the business to try to manipulate. i recently saw a commercial about being a father to two children. if you know that you are doing what you are doing, why are you allowing that type of advertisement put out there about you? it's one thing to be seen drinking gatorade or wearing a neek key outfit, but when you are advertising yourself as a family man where you clearly know that that is not how you are behaving, that is the epitome of hype see and it's one thing americans cannot forgive.

>> jim: we're going to take a break now. want to give thanks to jim grey on the phone. how can tiger's behavior be explained? we'll be talking to dr. drew pinsky coming up next. stay with us. tools are uncomplicated. nothing complicated about a pair of 10 inch hose clamp pliers. you know what's complicated? shipping. shipping's complicated. not really. with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service shipping's easy. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. that's not complicated. no. come on. how about... a handshake. alright. (announcer) priority mail flat rate boxes only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. bonus on every single purchase. what you do with it is up to you. what will you get back with your cash back?

now more than ever, it pays to discover. >> jim: i'm jim moret from inside edition sitting tonight in for larry. we're talking tonight about tiger woods. joining us on phone is dr. drew pinsky. host of sex rehab with dr. drew. drew, you and i spoke about a week ago. you suggested to me that this could imply sex addiction. we heard tiger today on his website, use the word infidelity. does infidelity change things in your view now? >> no. sim sorry i couldn't get in there. this story came up at the last moment. thank you for taking this call. the fact is, when somebody seems

to be engaged in behavior truly what we perceives out of character, i think it's truly out of character. he's not a man that people ever said, there's something wrong with his character. he misbehaves. he mistreats people. he doesn't elm pa these with other people. he's lived a certain kind of life. there's this tremendous behavior that seems to be out of character. whenever you shake your head and say what makes that happen? you have to think about addiction. here's a man had a knee surgery a year ago, had a prolonged rehabilitation. might have been been put on opiates. there was vicodin found in his system at the time of the car accident. you have to speculate many chemicals had something to do with this, and you look at the behavior, this isn't a single infidelity, and this is a pattern of acting out. that's when the sexual addiction has to be at least raised. >> jim: dr. drew, many people would hear the term sex addict, you're giving this guy an excuse that's not fair. >> you're absolutely right.

i wrote a blog on larry king live's website about this very issue. but you have to understand, when it comes to any addiction, it's rarely the case that the addict is stepping up and raising their hand and says i have this shameful problem. it's when the family brings them in, the legal system brings them in. some consequence precipitates the awareness of the problem and they begin gain insight on the nature of their problem. he's not stepping up and using it an excuse. the behavior fits this syndrome we call sexual addiction. >> jim: i want to point out, we're using the term sexual addiction. we're not implying that tiger woods is a sex addict. we're using this for conversation. our stellar panel, including stephen a. smith returns after this break.

>> jim: we're about 11 minute from the top of hour. that means anderson cooper takes over. what are you covering tonight? >> jim, we're going to be continue to follow the breaking news the tiger woods. we're going to take a look back at the time line of this recent scandal but woods' remarkable career since he was a little boy and a new look from the border. what you haven't seen from drug trafficker's tunnel we showed you last night. it's a 90-foot tunnel underground from tijuana, mexico to the united states. taking you deep inside that tunnel and a new drug bust today, dozens of people arrested in two states. we'll take a look at that. and al gore versus sarah palin on climate change. new details on the potential debate tonight on "360," jim. >> thank you, anderson. your report last night was excellent in mexico, and you

should stay tuned to the top of the hour. ac 360. steven a. smith, a sportscaster and nationally he syndicated radio host for fox sports radio and columnist for "the philadelphia inquirer." you heard drew pinskey talk about that. >> i've never given much credence to stuff like that. a lot of men in the world avoid the truth of the matter because they don't want to admit it because a lot of women are watching. when you see a woman and desire her, you desire her. when you get married, that doesn't necessarily stop. now, i'm not married yet, but the reality is it's almost one of those situations where when it comes to the physical, there's quite a bit of men out near constant rehab. we see something. we covet it. sometimes we act right about it. sometimes we act wrong about it. if tiger woods is an addict, per se, there's a whole bunch of addicts running around in this world.

people just need to stop using that as an excuse or whatever. men covet what they see, and we have to reel ourselves in when we make that ultimate commitment because it's not the right thing to do to violate it, period. i'm not interested in something about a sex addiction. i'm sorry. i'm just not. >> fair enough. christine brennan, we mentioned earlier in this broadcast that nike in a statement is standing by, at least it sounds like it, and are standing by tiger woods. what's your response to that? >> no surprise at all. in fact, it would be stunning news if nike said it weren't doing that. nike, we have to remember, is the company that signed tanya harding after the attack on nancy kerrigan. they will throw money at anything. the key ones for me are censure and at&t. the other day i tried to reach both, jim. i called in the morning and called five hours later. censure is in the airports.

it's so embarrassing right now. the spokeswoman never got back to me. nine hours and no phone call returned. they acted like they didn't know who tiger woods was. >> are you suggesting they're on the fence? >> i guess after nine hours of not returning a phone call with the question that i asked, are you staying with tiger, and if so, why? i think we can surmise that. then at&t was even more interesting. their name is on tiger's golf bag and they sponsor his tournament in washington, d.c. over the fourth of july weekend. i e-mailed him for a comment and followed up if they had a moral clause for tiger woods. they had no comment. at&t could come up with nothing better than we have no comment? that to me spoke volumes. >> listening to what people have said tonight, it sounds like he's going to do fine. is that really true? >> it's not that simple.

there has to be this period of time, an apology. he has to hold this family together if he plays everything right and if he plays golf well, too. he'll get through this. it will never be the same. he'll get through it but it will never be the same. the teflon coating has disintegrated from tiger woods. >> the luster is gone forever? >> not the luster forever, but some of that patina has been dinged a little. >> thank you to all of our panelists. after the break, another perspective on tiger woods' announcement that he's taking an indefinite break from golf. stay with us. [ female announcer ] get more of what you love when you create

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welcome back to "larry king live." i'm sitting in foent for larry. dr. rob by ludwig joins us from new york, and here in los angeles judy smith, a crisis management expert with impact strategies. judy, you've heard what many of these folks have said tonight. is this a lost cause, or what do you do if he's your client? >> absolutely not. it's not a lost cause. tiger woods is an icon -- >> a fallen icon. >> yes. as everybody has pointed out, the american people are very forgiving, and he's doing the exact right thing.

taking time to deal with this his marriage and family and kids. he'll be back. >> it's one thing to forgive someone. we don't know everything he's done yet, and the news keeps piling on. what do you do to treat a patient in this situation? >> well, i would help tig he e woods understand why he did what he did. i don't think if he understands what motivated his behavior. you need to first understand why you're doing what you're doing if you want to stop it and if you want to make a change. so really tiger has the opportunity now while he's taking a time-out from golf. he's taking a time-out from his distractions to ask himself these very serious questions. how did he end up in this horrible crisis? >> dr. ludwig, when you look at these photos they're showing on the air right now of his wife and they're both smiling, you now look at nethese photos

differently. is this a sham? is this for real? does she know what's going on? what's he doing really? that's not a good place to be, if you're looking at him as an icon and sports figure and a role model. >> right. but the truth of the matter is, we put these people on a pedestal when they don't really deserve to be there in the first place. just because he's an amazing golf player doesn't mean he's an amazing father, doesn't mean he's an amazing husband. so there's part of our society that likes to see people rise. we put them up there. we want to see perfection, fall, and then come back up again. we are a very forgiving people. we like to see people come back in part because we know that we are not perfect. if somebody can make a comeback after exposing their flaws, there's something very comforting for us in knowing that. >> judy smith, does tiger woods have to come out beyond going on his website and actually talk to his fans, talk to people who feel let down?

>> absolutely. i think he's going to have to address that. if he doesn't, he'll constantly be faced and dodged with these kinds of questions when he is back on the golf course. you don't want that. >> how does he do that? does he go on oprah? does he control the situation, or does he take questions? >> i think that's the last thing he has to do. i think the first thing he has to do is work on his marriage, which he's doing. i think it is next thing he has to do is assess what's the best place to go. whether it's oprah, whether it's a program such as this. but really that's the last thing. he has to get there, first. >> i'm inviting him right here, right now. dr. ludwig, you have about 15 seconds. i know this is a tough question to answer in a short time. can this marriage be repaired, and what do you do? how do you do it? >> i would say absolutely yes. people get through infidelity all the time. it has to do with a person's intention and are they willing to be in the marriage in a different kind of way.