Tiger: The $85 Million Man

By Stephen M. Silverman

07/27/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Golf champ Tiger Woods, 24, signed a five-year contract with Nike on Thursday that is said to be worth $85 million, making it the richest sports endorsement ever, reports The New York Times. Some reports say that the deal is worth as much as $100 million. (Because the final pay-out will be based on sales and incentives, the figure is hard to predict.) Woods's current five-year, $40 million deal with Nike -- with whom he has his own line of clothing and shoes -- expires in September 2001. The new deal will run through September 2006 and kick in when this current one expires. "A lot of people have compared Tiger to Michael Jordan," Bob Wood, president of Nike Golf, told The Times, "but one thing that makes them different is that the career of the professional golfer is so much longer than the career of a basketball player." He added that Nike looks forward to continuing its relationship with Woods "for the duration of his career, which will extend to the next 20 or 25 years and beyond."