Should people cheat? Probably not
I’m not here to tell you that cheating is good.
Nor to deny that cheating tends to make people very angry.
I’m here to tell you that China isn’t the only one cheating.
In Canada, curling teams that compete on tour are small business owners paying for their livelihood. Win, and you get paid. Lose, and you don't get paid—and then you try to get your flights changed to get home (or to the next event) sooner.
A curling season is long and requires flights, hotels, rental cars, equipment, food, time off work, and more.
Curling is also a job for players who are paid by a national federation or Olympic committee. Results are all that matter. If the team stops getting results, the funding goes elsewhere.
Life on the curling road can feel like work. Curlers travel all over the place, and when they win, they earn money. When they don’t, they might feel the need to replace a player or two.
Given sweeping and burned-rock rules that are very opaque—and a hogline that is no longer enforced, by sensors or humans—one can see how the rules might be fudged to achieve a result. The competitive juices are flowing, and players want to win. Do they want to win at all costs?
When China moved a stone to make a half-shot at the world men’s championship, what were the consequences? Scorn from social media posts? They didn’t share a drink with their opponents?
What if China’s alleged moment of bending the rules to win is not an isolated event? What if I told you I’ve spoken to very accomplished ex-players about this?
My sources saw suspect behaviour and didn’t want to win by brushing the way some people brush. These curlers said they had the moral fibre to stop themselves from doing this. But, like me, these players are now out of the game.
Would I have the morals to not cheat, given the money that is now available? Given the Olympic qualifying points that are up for grabs? I’d like to think I would, but that’s just me pretending to be holier than thou.
Teams are massaging the rules of sweeping and burning the rocks, and crossing the hogline on their deliveries, because there are almost no consequences.
At a Canadian provincial championship in 2013, a player was ejected from a game for swearing. The player had been warned, continued cursing, and booted a rock into a corner with such force that an official threw him out.
The player returned for the next game, won the championship and competed—on good behaviour—at the 2013 Brier.
Most people will agree that cheating in sport is far worse than swearing during sport.
Should people cheat? Probably not.
Curling is a special game because we enforce our own rules. In Wednesday night league curling, we pull a rock that we burn. We offer the other team a “good shot” when they make a good shot (and mostly, we mean it). The winners buy the losers the first drink—that may be a regional thing, but it’s also awesome.
Curling is a game of respect. Not of burning a rock on purpose to make a shot. And yet, here we are. In the place we didn’t expect to be in, because the pressures are bigger than we club curlers can possibly understand.
If China—whose players receive funding and lodging—doesn’t win, those players lose their jobs. If a team on tour doesn’t win, they don’t get paid. Sure, they might have sponsorships to pay for some or all of the expenses but trust me, most don’t. Some have payback schemes, or just enough of a budget, or are dipping into their own savings to chase a dream.
When I played at a high level, it seriously impacted my full-time job. I couldn’t work and curl due to the time off that was needed. And now there is even more time required.
So what is the answer?
I think this sport needs a players’ association. Specifically, another players’ association. (There have been one or two in the past, but they eventually folded due to infighting and competing self-interests.)
This association would make and enforce new rules for players who enter a bonspiel for money. If you cheat, you get docked five times the points awarded at the tournament.
Cheat a second time, and the penalty is 25 times.
Make an effort to livestream every game. You won’t stream every game, but that’s okay. In the English Premier League, some fields lack usable VAR angles because they depend on cameras, and not every field has enough. I’ve seen games where the pitch ruling had to stand because there was no replay.
But most of the games will be streamed (world championships simply must be streamed, every stone on every sheet). That means retroactive punishment can take place. And the disciplinary rulings won’t depend on the team that was victimized by the cheating at the time.
Curlers don’t want to be the rules people. Pulling rocks isn’t part of the game.
Cheating sucks. Look how angry it made George. What the game needs is to make cheating not worth it. Right now, it seems to be worth it.
And, like Broomgate, it’s up to everyone to get together and make a plan.