Tiger Woods needs help. His latest crash must be his last | Opinion
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Tiger Woods needs help.
Not a high-priced attorney who can make his latest DUI go away. Not a spin doctor who can make excuses for him. Not sycophants who will tell him how wonderful he is and minimize the recklessness of his actions.
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As soon as he's released from the Martin County Jail in Florida, Woods needs to go straight to rehab and stay there for as long as it takes for him to overcome his addiction. Weeks, months — no matter. He needs to get clean and he needs tools to help him stay that way.
Woods is fortunate he's only facing DUI allegations and not something worse. If there's a next time, he might not be so lucky.
What's most troubling is, after similar incidents in 2021, 2017 and 2009, this was already the next time.
Woods was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence on March 27, after clipping a pickup truck towing a small trailer while trying to overtake it at high speed. Woods' Range Rover tipped over and slid several feet on the driver's side before coming to a stop.
Officers on the scene believed Woods was impaired and not from alcohol, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said.
"They believed it was some type of medication or drugs. He cooperated with the Breathalyzer and then the urine (test), he wanted no part of," Budensiek said.
Neither Woods nor the driver of the truck were hurt, fortunately. That's far better than his last rollover crash, when Woods nearly had to have his right leg amputated because of the extent of his injuries.
"This," Budensiek said, "could have been a lot worse."
Pain, addiction authoring tragic passages in Tiger Woods' story
It must not take Woods killing someone else to sober him up. His life cannot end in tragedy because he couldn't, or wouldn't, get clean.
Addiction is a vicious and relentless disease, and Woods deserves empathy that he appears to be in its grip. It is also not a surprise, given how many back injuries and surgeries he's had, that Woods became susceptible to painkillers.
But having sympathy that Woods is fighting addiction again — he spent time in rehab in 2017 for abusing painkillers — does not give him a free pass for the mistakes he makes while in its throes. The 15-time major champion is a person of considerable means and privilege, who has resources that most people struggling with addiction don't have.
Woods can afford to hire a driver. He can afford to hire a sober living coach. He can afford to go to the best rehab center, regardless of where it is. He can afford to do any of the things necessary to help him manage his addiction or, short of that, keep him and others out of harm's way.
And yet, once again, Woods put himself at risk, to say nothing of endangering those who had the misfortune of being on the same road at the same time.
Under the influence of something that police believe made him "lethargic," Woods got behind the wheel of an SUV that weighs several tons. He sped through a residential neighborhood. He tried to pass another heavy vehicle while on a road that had little room for anyone to get out of his way.
This wasn't in the dead of night, either, when there are few vehicles on the road. This was in the middle of the afternoon, when Woods was all but assured of encountering someone else on the road.
Worse, he knew after the crash occurred that he'd done wrong. Impaired as police say he was, Woods still knew he was driving when he shouldn't have been.
"He is cooperative but he was not trying to incriminate himself. So he was careful in what he said and didn't say," Budensiek said.
Woods needs help. Before it's too late. For him or someone else.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tiger Woods' reckless driving needs to stop after Florida rollover