Saturday, February 9, 2013

Schille Ejection

What a great time for curling right now. As I am typing this I am watching both the M & M Junior Men’s final between Alberta and Manitoba (Go Dunstone) but also the 1 vs 1 page playoff game of the Manitoba Men’s Safeway Championship between Jeff Stoughton and Sean Grassie. Over the past few weekends we have been spoiled with lots of curling on TSN and Sportsnet. With Sportsnet’s acquisition of the Grand Slam series and broadcasting rights to some of the country’s provincial championship this is the best time for curling on TV. It isn’t every day that I have the choice of watching two different curling games on two different networks.

Last weekend the curling twitterverse exploded with reports from the Saskatchewan Men’s playdowns that Chris Schille had been kicked out of the “B” final. Here are some of tweets from Chris Schille (@cschille on twitter).







It took some time for the dust to settle and to get all the details of what happened but you can read summary here on Bob Week’s blog.Bob Week’s goes on to say that he has no problem with the official Deanna Rindal ejecting Schille from the game in the second end but was unsatisfied of the reason she gave. I however have a problem with an official ejecting a player from a game for swearing. I don’t believe curling should be held to a higher standard than other sports with swearing. It is a double edged sword if a player decides wear a microphone because they do have to watch what they say. In other sports I can guarantee you that what the players say during the game is not rated G. When a curler swears it is to show frustration which is a genuine way of showing they care. When we lace up the shoes we are going out there to win, nothing else. Curling is a fun sport but for the athletes at the top WINNING is fun. If a curler does swear maybe they can make the choice not to wear the microphone in the first place.

Thanks for taking the time to listen me ramble a bit. In a month from I will headed to Edmonton to watch the Brier with Kevin Palmer & Gerry Geurts. We will be recording some episode for Around the House podcast so make sure to subscribe through iTunes. I also strongly recommend that you follow me on twitter @ShaneOJak so we may interact. Until next time.