MusclePharm And Tiger Cut Ties After Less Than Two Years

SeekingAlpha.com features an unbylined wire item that Tiger Woods and MusclePharm have ended his endorsement deal, with the company paying $2.5 million to terminate a contract that still owed $7 million. The company is facing numerous lawsuits and plummeting stock price. Woods is showing no signs of an imminent return to competition.

Karen Crouse wrote for the New York Times about the goals of the partnership in July 2014, when the endorsement deal was announced and agent Mark Steinberg was available for comment.

“Our goal is to take the stigma out of supplements,” said Woods’s agent, Mark Steinberg. “Tiger Woods, maybe the most fit golfer that we’ve had, let’s show that it’s O.K. to align yourself with supplements. Just be safe when you do it. That’s the message we collectively want to spread.”

Dietary supplements are a billion-dollar industry, and Brad Pyatt, the chairman and chief executive of MusclePharm, argues that Woods can help the company become the industry’s gold standard.

“Tiger Woods is kind of the stamp of approval we were looking for,” Pyatt said in a telephone interview. “He’s the biggest figure in athletics we can get other than LeBron James.”

Amazing how things have changed in two years.

Woods still lists the company as a sponsor.