PRONGER PREGGO RUMOURS! (UPDATED)

This could be literally be a cock-and-bull story, but we're going to run with it for the next 12 hours or so.

There has always seemed to be something off-kilter about the "Lauren Pronger hates Edmonton" storyline, so that's why the Oilers have to trade their star defenceman, Chris Pronger (at left in an, ahem, interesting photo with Eric Lindros).

Now Microbano might have stumbled into something -- an e-mail sent by a TSN staffer that claims to shed some light on what's really going on. Here's excerpts:

Well, the reason Pronger's wife wants to leave Edmonton is not b/c she hates the city or the people. Apparently Pronger got a female beat reporter who covers the oilers pregnant. Christy Chorley is her name, and she told Prongs half way through the season. This is why it would be difficult for the Pronger family to settle down in Edmonton.

The e-mail itself seems legit. The grammar and spelling (it's Christie Chorley with an i-e, and the name of another female reporter is also spelled wrong) suggest it would have to be from someone who works in television.

I am not that mad at Prongs or his wife for that matter. Prongs would not be able to focus on hockey and his home life would be difficult, new start where he can impregnate another city's hot reporter...maybe Nermala Nidoo-Hill from Global Calgary. Pronger has jungle fever.

(UPDATE 11:43 a.m., Friday, June 30: Responding to a statement by an obviously upset Christie Chorley, Microbano yanked his post. This was never about her. This deals more with the mentality of the people who spread these rumours so I'm keeping the post up, with a few revisions.)

There's a teensy bit of sexism (not to mention racism) involved in those paragraphs, and it does confirm a lot about the Grade 7 mentality of the type of guys who fall into sports broadcasting, but that's another column.

If this is false -- there's libel/slander possibilities. Also, knowing how the herd mentality works, how upset Edmonton fans are about Pronger leaving, and how subservient local media can be, if this stays out there it could lead to Chorley having to leave her job and seek employment elsewhere.

(UPDATE Just to reiterate, there's nothing to this Chorley nonsense, but the Lauren-Pronger- hates-Edmonton story also sets off the bullshit detector.)

You also, from reading those two paragraphs, get an idea of some of the crap women and minorities -- to say nothing of a minority woman like Nermala Naidoo-Hill -- have to deal with from the old boys' club in Old Media, who even in 2006 sometimes make Anchorman look like a documentary.

Getting back to Pronger, the initial story line just seemed too well-formed, too pat. Too obvious. Too easy to swallow for Edmontonians, who are defensive as all get out about their city -- they live there, so they know that while it doesn't completely suck, it probably isn't New York or Paris. You would have to be defensive to call yourself "the City of Champions."

A friend and I were talking the other night, and we, like so many gossip hounds and hockey nuts, were wondering what was really going on. My gut feeling was it was some kind of "emotional blackmail" being carried out by Lauren Pronger -- i.e., ask for a trade or we're getting divorced. For the record, my pal thought I was crazy.

What I was thinking of was a paperback novel I read when I was 16, Ballpark by Michael Schiffer, a lovely bit of fluff about a romance between an emotionally scarred ballplayer and a Veronica Corningstone-esque crusading female sportswriter. There's a part where the woman scribe has to write a story about a veteran ballplayer who's demanded a trade, and she can't the real reason: that his wife has gotten wind of his screwin' around and has mentioned -- take it away, Tammy -- D-I-V-O-R-C-E.

Either way, this is a little embarrassing for TSN, since it does show a blatant unprofessionalism on the part of so-called journalists.

By tomorrow it could be a cock-and-bull story, but for today put it on the front page, big headline, with a slammer. God forbid we ever run anything without an exclamation mark.

(UPDATE: Deadspin notes that the Oilers had to ban discussion of Pronger from their official website, and as noted, Microbano pulled the post.)

Do Puck Bunnies Have Litters? (Microbano -- dead link, don't click)
Is This The Real Reason Pronger Wants Out? (Deadspin)
Christie Chorley website

Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.