The Loop
Professional curling team disqualified from event for being "extremely drunk"
Clive Mason
Like bowling, darts, billiards, bocce, and, yes, occasionally even golf, curling is a sport seemingly custom designed for drinking. It's cold, you're probably wearing crazy pants, and you're pushing a giant rock down a sheet of ice—of course you're going to want a Molson or six. But as it turns out, there are limits, which one World Curling Tour found out the hard way this weekend.
According to CBC Sports, on Sunday a curling foursome of Jamie Koe, Chris Schille, DJ Kidby, and Ryan Fry—part of Canada's 2014 gold medal-winning Olympic team—were unceremoniously booted from the Red Deer Curling Classic in Alberta after complaints about their sobriety (or lack thereof) from both competitors and opponents. But if you think this was just fragile millennial snowflakes getting their knickers in a knot, you're wrong. First of all, it's curling—not exactly a fragile millennial snowflake hot bed—and second of all, reports from around the arena have the four stooges kicking their opponents' equipment around the locker room, damaging facilities, breaking brooms while attempting to curl drunk, and engaging in the type of swearing/inappropriate behavior typically reserved for Yankee Stadium. The conduct was apparently so bad, that when the following sign was posted at the rink on Sunday, it was met with a parade of fans snapping photos and complimenting officials on their decision.
Worst of the offenders was apparently the former Olympian Fry, with manager of the Red Deer Curling Center Wade Thurber saying, "I would say one player in particular might have been worse than the other three but it's kind of guilt by association and we had to remove the whole team not just one player." Fry, to his credit, was quick to apologize, calling his actions "disrespectful and embarrassing" while vowing to make some seismic personal changes, but unfortunately by that point, a good day of curling was already ruined.