Monday, December 07, 2009

Tiger Beat: Bro's before Ho's? Not in Sweden!

Jesper Parnevik went well beyond the requirements of chivalry the other day and it was awesome to behold:

"I would be especially sad about it – I really feel sorry for Elin – since me and my wife were at fault for hooking her up with him," Parnevik said. "We probably thought he was a better guy than he is. I probably would have to apologise to her and hope she uses a driver next time rather than a three-iron, I would say."

I can't ever remember one jock taking sides against another like this. It's kind of awesome. (I have a vague memory of Iverson saying something critical of Kobe during the Colorado affair, but I can't find anything in the magic Google machine about it.)

Woods has been the subject of much discussion among Galley Friends who seem disillusioned that he isn't the good guy that they thought he was. I argue that Woods is a good guy--by the standards of professional athletes. Compared to Michael Vick or TO or A-Rod, Woods is a great guy. But he's also a pro athlete--which means that on the continuum, he's probably closer to those fellows in general deportment than he is to Bob in accounting.

I'd argue that this sudden realization is the reason that the Woods story has become so fascinating. He's the premier athlete of his time and he's cheating on his wife. No surprise there. But he's not cheating with Jessica Biel. He's not having an affair with Miranda Kerr. He's consorting with the type of girls you'd expect your average NBA sixth man to be banging. I suspect that that's what people find so surprising, and hence interesting.

Bonus: Galley Friend X warns that Tiger appears to be headed for sex addiction defense:

It's OBVIOUSLY going that way. This has become so ridiculous that he absolutely has to do it for purely financial reasons: i.e., it's the only way he's going to be able to keep Elin out of divorce court for the near future.

But here's the real fun: he'll come up with some story that combines sex addiction with his lost opportunity to have a childhood. (You heard it here first!) Tiger Woods is about to construct nothing less than A Classic Michael Jackson Defense, except that he tastefully substituted NYC/Vegas partygirls and A PORN STAR for underaged boys.

I hope not. Just about the only thing that would make me think less of Woods at this point would be if he went into public-confessional/apology mode. Despite everything, there's something refreshingly old-school about him just disappearing and taking his lumps.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

TO took on Ray Lewis a while back. Everyone was going crazy about TO's TD antics and he said something like:
The world is worried about me and here we have a guy who was involved in a double murder and he is treated like a hero (not an exact quote).

I have never been a fan of TO's self-absorbed style, but he was my hero for that day.

Steve Sailer said...

Jesper Parnevik is from Sweden's elite, the son of the top comedian in the country: his father is often referred to as the Bob Hope of Sweden. Elin Nordegren's mom is a cabinet officer, so these kind of introductions mean something at that level of society.

Rear Admir0l said...

Sweden's elite are their comedians??? I'll give you that Charlie Murphy's "True Hollywood Stories" made me laugh, but I hope and pray that doesn't make him one of our elites.