Tiger Woods Named AP's Athlete of the Decade Despite Sex Scandal

Despite a growing sex scandal, golfer Tiger Woods has been named by members of the Associated Press as Athlete of the Decade.

According to AP Sports Enterprise Editor John Affleck:

The Tiger Woods scandal if you will, the, all of the, all of the personal turmoil that Tiger has been through in the past few weeks really had very little effect on the voting. Voting began a few days before his accident, and he had already established a lead, and he maintained that lead, and it even grew a little bit I think in the past couple of weeks. 

Imagine that. His lead GREW after the scandal hit (video embedded below the fold, h/t Story Balloon):

As the AP reported moments ago:

Woods was selected Wednesday as the Athlete of the Decade by members of The Associated Press in a vote that was more about 10 years of performance than nearly three weeks of salacious headlines. [...]

Woods received 56 of the 142 votes cast by AP member editors since last month. More than half of the ballots were returned after the Nov. 27 car accident outside his Florida home that set off sensational tales of infidelity.

Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor who won the Tour de France six times this decade, finished second with 33 votes. He was followed by Roger Federer, who won more Grand Slam singles titles than any other man, with 25 votes.

Record-setting Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps came in fourth with 13 votes, followed by New England quarterback Tom Brady (6) and sprinter Usain Bolt (4). Five other athletes received one vote apiece.

Should his serial infidelity have impacted the results? Is the AP crazy to name a man currently involved in one of the biggest sex scandals of our time Athlete of the Decade?