Traina Thoughts: The Details Of Tiger Woods' 2009 Thanksgiving Night Remain Surreal
1. Sunday marks the 8th anniversary of what to this day remains the craziest sports story of my lifetime -- Tiger Woods' Thanksgiving night in 2009. Twitter was around back then, but it was still in its infancy. If that story took place now, forget about it. Memes and GIFs for months.
The thing to keep in mind here is that the overall story of that evening alone is insane, but if you can remember the aura around Tiger pre-Thanksgiving 2009, he was basically thought of as a god by fans while sports media couldn't slobber over him enough. He had the PERFECT image at the time. But then it all came crashing down in truly spectacular fashion.
For those who don't remember, the alledged story goes something like this: Woods' then-wife, Elin Nordegren, suspected Tiger of cheating. So while he allegedly was knocked out on Ambien at about three in the morning, she went through his phone, found shady messages and decided to call one of the mistresses. After Elin's fears were confirmed, she allegedly chased Tiger out of the house with a golf club and scratched up his face. He got in his car, but she allegedly smashed out the back window (see the pictures here) and then he drove into a fire hydrant and then a tree. This real story ended up being quite different than the first-reported story, as you'll see above.
He hasn't won a Major since then and after that insane night tons of women came out of the woodwork to say they also had affairs with Woods. Tiger even pleaded with one of his women to take her name off her voicemail in preparation for Elin calling her.
To truly relive the events of that monumental night, the Taiwanese animation summary, created a week later, really covers it all in unbelievable fashion. Eight years later and it's still hard to believe the way it all went down.
2. Things got ugly for the Chargers on Thanksgiving when kicker Nick Novak got injured. The team had to turn to punter Drew Kaser to handle kicking duties and he ended up missing three extra points. He also completely missed the net while practicing his kicks on the sideline, which gave CBS analyst, Tony Romo, a good laugh.
3. If you're one of BizNasty's million followers on Twitter, you'll want to read this great feature from SI's Alex Prewitt on Paul Bissonnette's transition from fourth-liner/social media star to Phoenix Coyotes radio analyst.
4. J.J. Watt likes to smile.
5. Ole Miss defensive end Breeland Speaks had the chillest response to a fumble recovery in last night's win against Mississippi State.
6. Since The Rock doesn't have enough jobs, he's now executive producing a new podcast, What Really Happened. If you're a Michael Jordan fan, you'll be interested in Episode 4, which examines what happens when Jordan retired from the NBA for the first time.
7. Jerry Seinfeld and Jimmy Fallon had a stand-up battle with Jerry being Jerry and Jimmy being Jerry on The Tonight Show last night.
8. RANDOM WRESTLING VIDEO OF THE DAY: The end of Thanksgiving means the start of the Christmas season. What better way to get into the holiday spirit than by watching Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon host a Christmas edition of the old Prime Time Wrestling show.
Traina Thoughts is the best of the Internet, plus musings by SI.com writer, Jimmy Traina. Get the link to a new Traina's Thoughts each day by following on Twitter and liking on Facebook. Catch up on previous editions of Traina Thoughts right here. And check out Jimmy Traina's weekly podcast, "Off The Board."
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BONUS ITEM: When Alabama is only -4.5, as is the case Saturday when it visists Auburn, I'll gladly take the Crimson Tide.
