Death, Punches, and Mugshots: Inside Sports Strangest and Saddest Memorial Day Ever

Casey Pazzalia Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 30, 2017

For most people, Memorial Day is a time for family. For others, it’s a time for driving under the influence — whichever category you fall under, one thing is for certain: sports and Memorial Day usually go hand in hand.

Last year on Memorial Day, the Golden State Warriors completed their improbable comeback in the Western Conference Finals; coming back from a 3–1 hole to defeat future-Warrior Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Plus, the 2016 Stanley Cup Finals kicked off, with the Pittsburgh Penguins snatching the early 1–0 lead with a 3–2 victory over the San Jose Sharks.

On Memorial Day 2017, the Penguins also won Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, holding off the surging, 8th seeded Nashville Predators for a 5–3 win.

That’s where the comparisons stop, though, as Memorial Day 2017 was more of a sad, somber occasion than the year prior.

To start the day, we all received an ESPN alert about Tiger Woods, the only golfer most people care about outside of John Daly. Unfortunately, the notification wasn’t alerting a Woods comeback attempt; instead, we were brought further down the rabbit hole of Woods’ descent — an icon now more-Nick Nolte than Nick Faldo.

Woods was arrested for DUI around 3am in Florida, with the news hitting the wire early on Memorial Day morning. Per usual, Woods became the punchline of jokes nationwide, with only ESPN backing the former-№1 golfer. In fact, the ‘Worldwide Leader’ was in full-on damage control mode, complete with a Lohan-esque photoshop attempt and misguided theories that prescription medication is somehow less damning than alcohol.

A sad photo, and an equally sad cover up.

Woods claimed the arrest was due to an “unexpected reaction to prescription medication” and the subsequent police report backs up those claims. Since Woods recently had back surgery, one could only imagine that he was given opiate pain relievers — such as Oxycontin, Percocet, or Vicodin. Although prescribed by a doctor, these pills show no discrimination and are basically synthetic heroin. Let’s all hope this was a one-off situation and he is not falling into the dangerous trap that is opiate addiction.