I keep hearing over and over again. Tiger Woods is never going to be the same. He’s going to lose commercial deals and appeal. He’ll go from household name to household joke. But my favorite: his reputation is forever tarnished.

In reality, there is only one thing Tiger Woods needs to do to get his reputation back and as Al Davis would say, “Just win, baby.“

If all these catastrophic views of Tiger’s rep were true, then how come Kobe Bryant is the most popular basketball player on the planet? How come moms let their kids drop 150 on the new Kobe’s? How come there are more number 24 Jerseys in the stands in Charlotte than Bobcat Jerseys on nights when Kobe is on the other side of the country?

The answer is obvious. We like winners. We forgive winners. We forget about their faults and honor them for one reason: they’re better than everybody else. Kobe-it seems like I have to remind people of this-faced charges of sexual assault back in the summer of 2003. McDonald’s dropped him. His other sponsors dropped him too. During that summer and following season, Kobe stories were flying around. Woman were coming out of the trees, saying they too had affairs or rejected his attempts. But over time it stopped. People came around. We still don’t exactly know what happened back in that hotel room in July but now no one wants to know. They agreed on a settlement. Kobe bought Vanessa a ring, Kobe got a ring for himself, and now he’s once again on the path toward imorjordanalty.

Let’s face it: Tiger has it easy compared to Kobe. Tiger doesn’t have to deal with the kind of stress Kobe went through. He doesn’t face the distant possibility of going to jail. People are looking at him differently because they say he’s not a family man. He’s a player. But they’ll get over that. Tiger will go back to smiling with Elli or maybe a new family woman if things don’t work out. He’ll say he learned his lesson and then he’ll get back to winning. In three years, this will be that thing people mention when they talk of that one flaw. Sort of like we talk about Jordan’s “gambling problem.“

But when I think of Jordan, I don’t think of gambling. I think of 6 championships, 2 gold medals, and and endless supply of highlight tape. (Michael Jordan: Air Time, love that music)

And in three years, when I think of Tiger, it will be the first pump, the majors, and yes even that Tiger smile. Tiger’s rep maybe damaged but it’s fixable, and if he’s the winner we all think of him to be, he’ll find a way to overcome.