THE MORNING BRIEFING ...
I f the first step on the road to recovery is acknowledging you have a problem, then what does it say about the sport of curling that the players of Team World at this week’s Continental Cup in Langley have selfimposed an unprecedented total prohibition on the consumption of alcohol?
And what does it say about the sport in Canada that some elite Canadian curlers in Langley reacted this week like maybe they were a little threatened by the idea?
“We have informed the teams that, when you’re leaving your home country, we won’t have any alcohol until the last rock is played,” Team World coach Peja Lindholm told the Canadian Press as curling’s version of the Ryder Cup got underway Thursday.
“We would like to make a statement here that it’s important we make sure we’re a professional sport.”
That seemed to touch a nerve among some members of Team North America.
“I don’t get it,” bristled former world champion Glenn Howard of Coldwater, Ont. “if you want to have a drink, go have a drink. Come on. We’ve got to have some fun out here.” This is fascinating on many levels. First, Lindholm seems to set up a straw man here, suggesting drinking and professional sport don’t mix. That’s hilarious, of course. If hockey didn’t exist, the beer companies would have invented it. And it’s not just the fans who are enthusiastic consumers.
Of course Howard set up a straw man of his own, suggesting that taking drinking out of the game was also going to take the fun out of it, too. Let’s hope, for everyone’s sake, that it’s not a case of either/or.
It’s also interesting that Lindholm is playing curling’s version of Elliott Ness here. Lindholm is one of curling’s greats, on and off the ice — in his playing days he would never be confused with Little Miss Temperance.
A couple of things are driving this. First, the Continental Cup is the most beer-soaked and philandering curling event I’ve covered in my 14 years around the sport.
It is in the unique nature of the Cup that it brings traditional opponents together as teammates. Throw in the fact it’s co-ed and it’s hardly surprising the alcohol flows.
But the larger issue seems to be this: In the same way ashtrays are no longer on the ice, so too is hard drinking becoming a relic since curling became an Olympic sport in 1998.
The skips that are consistently winning at the highest levels — Kevin Martin, Jeff Stoughton, Jennifer Jones — are generally the first to head to bed at curling events.
There was a time in curling when you could drink all night and still win in the morning. These days you can do one or the other.