Over Thanksgiving weekend the biggest story in the news was the single car accident involving professional golfer Tiger Woods outside his home early Friday morning. It was first reported by ESPN that Woods was in critical condition in an Orlando hospital, but it actually turned out that Woods had just suffered some facial lacerations and other minor injuries. Then, the speculation about the incident began. The National Enquirer reported Woods was having affair with a woman named Rachel Uchitel and that this affair might have been a contributing factor to the accident.

There were other reports, most notably from TMZ.com, that Woods’ wife, Elin Nordegren, caused his injuries when she smashed the back windows of Woods’ SUV with a golf club. All of this speculation led the Florida Highway Patrol to try to question Woods and Nordegren about the incident, but so far it does not appear that they are going to answer any questions from the police.

So, the question is whether or not Tiger Woods and his wife should talk to the authorities about the circumstances surrounding the car accident. Woods is not required by law to answer questions from police about the accident. He is only required to give the authorities his driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance. If he does not wish to talk to the authorities about the incident, he does not have to.

There are circumstances in all of our lives that we wish to be kept private and if Woods wants to keep certain aspects of his life out of the public eye, he should be able to maintain that sense of privacy. He does not owe it to anyone to discuss this incident. Woods has shown throughout his career that he is a very private man off of the golf course. His name is never in the tabloids with Alex Rodriguez or Tony Romo, so why should he abandon this sense of privacy to please the media? The only facts presented about the accident are that Woods crashed his SUV into a tree after hitting a fire hydrant and that he sustained minor injuries. The rest is speculation. And Woods and his family want to keep it that way.

Chris Varano is a freshman film-TV- digital media major from Suffern, N.Y.