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Thumbing through Henry Abbott’s True Hoop today when I came across this:
The biggest mystery of these playoffs is “What did Quentin Richardson say to Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce?” A close second is what is up with this “Fans of Carmelo Anthony in Utah” ad?
With Henry as good as NBA blogging gets, naturally I clicked over to see the ad.
Yesterday a commercial from Nike was released featuring audio from the late father of Tiger Woods, Earl. In the spot, Earl said:
“Tiger, I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are. Did you learn anything?”
The only visual we get during Earl’s comments is a stoic image of Tiger.
I’ve since found the origin of the audio, and its context. Read more…
Quote from Kultida Woods reported today by S.L. Price of Golf.com in a story completely unrelated to Tiger Woods Nike ad featuring his late father Earl Woods:
A decade ago in the Southern California winter Tida Woods sat outside the clubhouse at La Costa, grinning as she gave a tougher, less starry-eyed view of child rearing than Earl’s. “You will never, never ruin my reputation as a parent,” she said she always told young Tiger, “because I will beat you.”
They’d be lined up outside Nevada Bob’s if that’d made the final cut.
How desperate is Nike and Tiger get back into your pocket? They’ll exhume Tiger’s dead dad Earl Woods to help restore six-iron sales.
(Gee, I’d forgotten Earl said that. Thanks Nike!)
Thank goodness 99.9% of the people who will watch the :30 spot have no idea that in 1997 Tiger effectively traded in his relationship with his father for the honorable pursuit of selling golf bags.
(Tiger putter apparently getting a lot more use)
Before the Olbermann v. Simmons thing asploded recently, I was asked during an interview for an upcoming E! television special on Tiger Woods to compare the celebrity of Woods to Muhammad Ali.
(’Champ, seen my waffle iron?)
I said Ali was the only enduring, authentic worldwide sports celebrity we’ll ever know1. His phenomena was just recent enough to benefit from technology-wrought global interconnectivity while missing sports as an end-all for hawking washing machines.
Today, the acknowledged reason Nike is in the golf business is its association with Tiger Woods. If Nike was around for Ali’s emergence, it’d be in the boxing biz.
With Woods (and Michael Jordan) as our guide, had Phil Knight fired up the waffle iron 20 years earlier, there’d be no Olbermann-Simmons debate.
Today’s reminiscence of time spent with Tiger Woods and his father Earl by Karen Crouse of the NEW YORK TIMES elicits mixed signals on what led to the alleged multiple affairs of Tiger. Affairs, as incomprehensible actions, that wrecked his personal life and business relationships.
(Earl: Explaining The Unexplainable)
Crouse claims that because of his young two children, 2009 was the first year that Tiger gave ground to the media on anything save his steely golf acumen.
His 2-year-old daughter, Sam, and 10-month-old son, Charlie, brought out Woods’s softer side in interviews. When I covered Woods early in his career, the only warmth he exuded in news conferences came from the vibrant reds of his signature Sunday shirts.
This year was different. Returning to competitive golf in late February after a nine-month injury-induced absence, Woods drew me in with a smile that started in his eyes when he talked about his children. When he was asked about the birth of Charlie or how he occupied himself while recovering from knee surgery, his eyes grew moony and his voice was lilting — a marked departure from his monotone.
Crouse then noted the now-regrettable headlines of pieces she wrote about Tiger this past year:
“The Family Guy Is Back on the Course” and “All Eyes Are on Tiger, the Father.”
Those anecdotes make Tiger’s betrayal to his family that much more inexplicable.
But Crouse also recounts sentiment from Tiger’s father Earl that, once again, helps us understand why the golfer elected a path of personal self-destruction.
A former college girlfriend of Tiger Woods appeared on EOnline.com video today saying that the golfer, “was devastated by his own father’s philandering, according to his high school sweetheart.”
(Video of comments after the jump)
Dina Parr remembered calls from Woods “from the road during the summer to talk about his parents’ relationship.”
“He would just call crying and say, ‘My dad is with another woman,’ and that would be all he could say. He would be so upset, so I just tried to be there for him and listen to him.
“He loved his father. And I know that was the one thing about his dad that he could never get over. So yeah, it’s interesting that it’s turned out that he’s doing the same thing.”
Earl’s separation from wife Kutilda, much like Tiger’s philandering, was an open secret in the golf media. Despite the fact that Earl lived apart from Woods mother without divorcing her, the media never reported it in the innumerable, glowing profiles about Tiger’s so-called model father.
I’ve been amused by the numerous members of the media the past month who have claimed that Earl would’ve unleashed hell on son Tiger if he was still around. Truth to be told, Tiger was just falling his dad’s lead. For all we know Earl would’ve gone Clinton Portis on his son. Read more…
More on the record comments from Jamie Jungers (photos) are out about her alleged affair with Tiger Woods. This time Carole Aye Maung and Daniel Sanderson of NEWS OF THE WORLD have the increasingly ugly details - which include Jungers claiming she was in bed with Woods when he learned of his father’s death and that the golfer never tipped and always demanded free meals from restaurants.
The 26-year-old Jungers said she was with the married Woods when he found out his father Earl had died from cancer and, “I was beside him wearing nothing but a pair of panties.”
NOTW adds:
But his grief over losing his war veteran father did not stop Tiger continuing his torrid affair. It only ended six months later - when Jamie asked her lover for financial aid. She said: “He’s a cheap f***er and he just didn’t want to help me.”
NOTW reports that on May 2, 2006, Jungers was visiting Woods at his “marital home in California” when he went to visit his cancer-stricken father at a hospice. Jungers:
“When he came back, I could see he was preoccupied and worried about his dad - but when we went to bed he still wanted to have sex as usual. We went to sleep. Then at about 3am the phone rang. It was Tiger’s mum. She called to tell him that his dad had passed away. Tiger looked utterly devastated and didn’t say a word. He didn’t even cry but I could tell he was heartbroken.”
Jungers flew home to Vegas the next day, telling NOTW, “I didn’t expect to hear from him for a while. I thought he would be busy having just lost his dad. But he told me how much he appreciated me being there with him and thanked me for my support.” Read more…
Just in time for the holidays, Earl Woods‘ Training a Tiger: A Father’s Guide to Raising a Winner in Both Golf and Life
I wasn’t aware of the book until today, so I’ll cede to this review: “This book is great! Anytime you can read about wonderful parenting, it is a highllight in your day.“
Voicemail and 911 calls included in updated Christmas DVD bundle?
