A TALE OF TWO EGOS

There is something almost Nietschean about two superb athletes, kings in their sports, and their downfall. Both of them existed at an almost Olympian level. Olympus was the home of The Gods. They were above ordinary limits. They were beyond human laws. (In fact, the Greeks Olympians were seen to be human, with all the human failings up to and including adultery.) But somehow, we exempt them from ordinary scrutiny. We may emit sanctimonious pronouncements like “no one is above the law,” but it isn’t so. Some really are. Worse, there are those who believe they deserve to be.

Alright the two are different but very much the same. Both were the best in their field. Both fell from grace. Both seem unable to adjust to the new reality.

A few days ago we learned that Tiger Woods got his divorce from his Swedish beauty. In subsequent days his wife told all to People magazine and Tiger himself muttered a few righteous words at the opening of a tournament. Neither one impressed me. I’m actually starting to feel sorry for them. They have no place to hide.

This week past sports writers were musing about Roger Clemens and his chances of going to jail for perjury. Jail time is substantially worse than divorce, but not emotionally. (They can’t indict Roger for the sin of having an affair with a country music singer.) Both perjury and divorce are life changing. Both, and this is the important part, reflect that their central figures, are less than invulnerable, and perhaps even more accountable than just plain folks.

Accountable. and vulnerable. It is really difficult, believe me, to barricade the doors of your life when your popularity is attracting babes like honey attracts...never mind.

Sadly, there not many people who are rooting for Clemens to get off. Even in Texas, where he was literally deified, they have turned their backs on him. He is the absolute symbol of ego-bound prominence, and an inflated sense of his own importance.
He may be one of the truly great pitchers in the history of baseball.

Notwithstanding that he seems to have used banned substances to enhance his performance, he was a super-star. He deserved applause.

But did he also deserve to become emotionally unhinged (I don’t take that lightly) by his own fame? Six Cy Young Awards will say: “You are the greatest.” But it does not allow for the excess of hubris. Roger believed that what he said had to be true because he said it. Such is the self delusion of the powerful. He was a mean guy at the mound who did not think twice about throwing a fastball at a batter’s head. His self-presumptive advantages included an infamous golf story. Lorne Rubenstein of the Globe and Mail was criticized for “unfairly:” attacking Clemens. He alleged that Roger and two of his friends showed up at one of our better golf courses and literally demand with the “do you know who I am?” proclamation, to be allowed to play free. He was denied. He left in a huff.

You can try to befuddle golf course management or hard-working sports writers, but that doesn’t mean you can do it to the United States Congress. He thought he could, being who he was. After all, six Cy Youngs!

The other guy is the subject of lengthy perorations about his collapse as a golfer. Not just a descent from the top but a slide to the bottom. Tiger is now 35, still at an age when he should continue to win.

Let me try this: after 15 years of supremacy and international adulation, anyone starts to believe his own press notices.” He can mutter “This can’t be happening. Don’t they know who I am?”

My take is that unless Tiger is ready really to examine his behaviour, nothing will change. But the examination has to be sincere. He is someone who has been caught with his hand in a very luscious cookie jar. No, it must be a search for himself. One clue that he is not ready is his apparent indifference to what coaches try to tell him.

Like Roger, you can’t tell Tiger anything. They can both do their “mea culpas” but I don’t think either one is sincere. Both have fallen and after the fall is supposed top be redemption.

Unless they both still think privately, that they can beat the rap.