Gushue: “Grow Up And Move On”
ST. JOHN’S—The National Grand Slam has come and gone and for many, there was just too much going on to properly digest.
One storyline certainly landed, and that’s the schism between traditional fans and a competition atmosphere many players are dying to see change.
Fans of Brad Gushue have been dealing with a lot this season. The dismissal of E.J. Harnden early in this pre-Olympic season and the hiring of Brendan Bottcher has thrown the fanbase for a loop.
Bottcher is villainesque, you see. Curling fans transformed him from a quiet and likeable figure into a bad guy after his team dismissed Darren Moulding three years ago this week.
(A poorly-worded news release didn’t help matters.)
Which fans booed, and which fans sshh’d?
At the Mary Brown’s Centre, Team Gushue wound up at 2-3 after losing to Brad Jacobs in a quarterfinal matchup that ended with some spicy crowd reactions.
What some Gushue diehards might have missed is their favourite skip’s suggestion that those fans are to be applauded, and those who disagree need to, er… perhaps… move past some of their traditional thinking.
Look at me, I’m having trouble actually typing the words. Okay, here it is.
BRAD GUSHUE TOLD SOME OF HIS FANS TO GROW UP.
Yeah, he said that. He really did.
Gushue suggested this even as he praised all of his fans for the incredible support they showed his team all week at their hometown Slam.
Here’s the full quote given to the Grand Slam’s Jonathan Brazeau. And remember the context: Gushue was asked about his fans booing Brad Jacobs as their playoff game came to its conclusion.
“I know there are going to be some people out there that are probably not going to like (the booing). Personally, I love it,” said Gushue. “I’ve been on the other end of that when we played in Italy at the Olympics.
“I thought it was great. I think we need more excitement. We need the fans to get into it.
Jacobs winds up the Gushue crowd
“I thought (Jacobs) handled it really well. You know what? He’s the right person for that because that probably motivates him, but I think he understood it. I think he wants that energy from the crowd and I think the crowd was amazing this week.
“I think anybody that talks against it, I’d tell them to grow up and move on. It’s the way sport is and it’s the way curling needs to go. We’ve had this ritual of ‘that’s not appropriate’ but it’s done in every sport. If you support a team, support them and I certainly appreciate the way the fans supported us this week.”
And there you have it. When a player as beloved as Brad Gushue is telling a portion of his own fanbase to re-think some things, a wider scope of curling fans might do well to consider his words.
Who else has been booed in the past—including Gushue?
Colin Hufman of Team Shuster got raspberried at a U.S.-hosted worlds, in Las Vegas.
His only concession was to smile as he threw his stones; he says it didn’t affect him and, like the two Brads, he wants more of it.
Read Hufman’s words in this piece below:
Anyone else? How about Eve Muirhead?
She was a victim of over-enthused chanting and bleacher stomping by American fans at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, as she was preparing to throw her final stone.
Muirhead actually missed the shot and lost the game, but—remarkably—she still enjoyed the atmosphere.
Check out her comments in this story:
So where are we headed?
The new Grand Slam owners are just the latest leaders attempting to spearhead a cultural sea change in the Roaring Game. Many past attempts have tried and failed to varying degrees, but something feels different this time as we head into 2025 and one year out from the Milano-Cortina Olympic Games.
The Curling Group’s intentions seem to be backed by the players as never before—and as someone who has worked with curling athletes in various capacities for over 30 years, let me tell you how tricky it is to get them on the same page about anything.
Let’s give Brash Brad Jacobs the last word, shall we? And he finishes with a (good-natured) taunt for the locals in St. John’s, too.
Did Jacobs love it? of course he did.
“First of all, we all loved it,” Jacobs told the Slam’s Brazeau. “There were a lot of apologies from a lot of people. A lot of people actually felt like (the booing) was uncalled for but, you know what? Curling needs more of that.
“In any other sport out there, there’s a team that people want to win and there’s the villain… and I know we’re both Brads, the Battle of the Brads, for how many years now? Well, over a decade. We embrace that. That’s good theatre, that’s good TV, that’s good for the sport and that makes it worth it for all of those bums in those seats.
“I also thought to myself, if any individual can reach a point in their life where they’re in an arena and they’re booed by 6,000-plus people, they’re probably doing something right in their life. We embraced it.
“I know that we rained on the parade a little bit but they get a lot of rain out here, so they’re used to it, right?”
Brash Brad at the 2015 Brier • Michael Burns-Curling Canada
