I’ve been thinking about the nature of friendship.
My thoughts began with leaks that Tiger Woods’ assignations were arranged — and concealed — in part by the efforts of a childhood friend, Bryon Bell.
Bell apparently arranged for Rachel Uchitel to fly Melbourne for last year’s Australian Open, flew with her — I’m sure he didn’t want her to get lost — and paid for her nights in the Crown Towers Hotel, where Woods was staying.
Texts and e-mails released by another Woods inamorata, a porn actress, indicate Bell also handled her transportation needs. One of the travel-related e-mails Bell sent to Joslyn James was from Bell’s work account — but not to worry. As Bell is president of a business by the name of Tiger Woods Design, I’m confident he’s not in too much trouble with his boss.
How close are Woods and Bell? The golfer was supposed to be Bell’s best man at his December wedding until a certain Thanksgiving Day incident turned Woods into paparazzi catnip.
Woods has said more than once that “nobody” knew about his extra-marital affairs, but that’s obviously not true. If Woods’ purpose in his most recent lie is to protect Bell, it’s a little late for that.
Woods used Bell to deceive his wife and facilitate his affairs. Is that what one does to a friend, turn him into a procurer, into an accessory to adultery? And what kind of friend does this kind of bidding? I guess the kind of friend who ties his entire life to the fame and fortune of another.
This is friendship? Really? It debases the name of friendship.
As slimy as the Woods-Bell uh … brotherhood … seems, I’m not sure it can match that of Ben Roethlisberg and an unnamed “friend” who did sentry duty outside a nightclub bathroom while the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback was doing … something … to or with a 20-year-old college student.
Was the chum told to guard the bathroom door or did he do so on his own? Was he a veteran of making sure Roethlisberger was uninterrupted in pursuit of casual coitus or was this the first time?
It’s bad enough, of course, if whatever went on in the lavatory was consensual. But if it wasn’t — and the coed has claimed she was sexually assaulted — might the friend’s actions even be criminal?
I’m sure that in Pittsburgh, being Roethlisberger’s buddy/flunkie carries a certain distinction. But I wonder if, whoever this person is, he’s bragging about “his pal Ben” at the moment.
A Confucian saying advises, “Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than yourself.” From a character viewpoint, I’d say Woods and Bell, as well as Roethlisberger and his unnamed sidekick, have all violated that principle.
Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.
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