Curling team banned from Alberta tournament because she's so drunk

Curling has long been touted as a sport that can be played while drinking. That's right, and it's not uncommon for recreational and competitive players to have a beer during a match, it's totally false that you can Play the game drunkor at least plays well. This was proven in Alberta last weekend, when a team was kicked out of a tournament because it was too exhausted, Sunday afternoon.

The team of Jamie Koe, Ryan Fry, Chris Schille and DJ Kidby was disqualified from the Red Deer Curling Classic in his fourth game, a playoff match, when his behavior forced the curling facility manager to give him the killer after many complaints. The team would not only have been intoxicated, but it would have damaged the locker rooms throughout the weekend, crushed their brooms in the ice and thrown pebbles, all curious. They have been banned from this tournament in perpetuity.

With a hat tip to David Sciacero, who scored the video, here is an oral account of what happened. A disembodied voice said the Koe team arrived at 11 o'clock and had "30, 40 empty beer bottles and shots. Then they came out completely drunk and played. Hitting stones, throwing brooms, was disqualified. Other teams said: "We do not even want to play here anymore if they are allowed." They said: "The Koe team is disqualified" and they are not allowed to play here anymore. "

Curling tournaments, also known as bonspiels, can be noisy events where alcohol is flowing freely. As a rule, the behavior does not get out of hand, but like any watering establishment, a club will get drunk from time to time and call a taxi. It's much rarer in World Curling Tour competition tournaments like this one. The Red Deer event has a purse of $ 35,000. The winning team should win $ 10,000.

Now that everyone is sober, the curlers are sorry for what they did. Fry, who spared for the Koe team but won a gold medal in 2014 for Canada and continues to play with the team led by Brad Jacobs, told CBC's Devin Heroux: "I allowed myself to lose control" and "the committee was right to disqualify us. Jacobs is currently ranked fifth in the world and won a Curling Grand Slam tournament last week. The incident is unlikely to have a significant impact on his status on the team, although Fry has long been the target of rumors that he could leave the team at some point, as he is the only one of the four not to live in Northern Ontario.

Koe, who seemed to have finished when he tweeted a picture of himself at the Oilers game Sunday night, issued today a statement:

Schille was at first less excuse on Twitter. His tweet, now deleted, said: "The Red Deer Classic, a game that allows Bottcher to bring in a team from the event and start another to fund the bar! " (The world's eighth-ranked Brendan Bottcher team is the reigning champion of the Red Deer Classic.) But today, Schille has apologized similar to Koe's:

Kidby too:

Koe and Schille have earned a reputation among legendary drinkers in the community. Koe, the younger brother of Olympic curler Kevin Koe, is best known for his long-time participation in the Brier (the Canadian Men's Curling Championship) representing the Northwest Territories. His teams usually win only a few games and have qualified for the playoffs once in 12 trips. Jamie's twin sister, Kerry, once said he was the most popular person in "The Patch", the official Brier tent where fans and athletes mix.

Schille was involved in an incident in 2013 when an official expelled him for swearing at the Saskatchewan provincial championship, leaving his team to play the rest of the match with just three players. And although alcohol is not involved, it highlights what the curling community accepts and does not accept. Curling and drinking will remain forever linked as long as hops and rocks exist. If you are able to handle your alcohol, it's great: drink and give income to the local bar. But when it is undisciplined behavior, it makes a very polite sport extremely uncomfortable for competitors and spectators. In this case, it's drunk on a Sunday afternoon in Alberta.

Matt Sussman is an Ohio Curler who ranks better than Jamie Koe (at least for the moment). You can follow him on Twitter at @ suss2hyphens.