Your normie friend just tagged you in a curling GIF! Now what?
Grow the game!
With all the growth of the sport and our increasing knowledge of leagues, competitive teams, sweeping, and how to pronounce “bonspiel,” we forget that all this arcane knowledge is completely lost on normal folks, who know curling is a sport and it has brooms and rocks and ice and that’s about it. Therefore when they get into it and see those Facebook memes scroll through the endless pixel hell, you are relentlessly tagged.
This is not cruelty. This is a cry for help. An opportunity to #GrowTheGame. So the question is: how do you respond?
Reply to curling memes with the Jeff Stoughton highlight reel.
The Jeff Stoughton highlight reel (of which there is a Part 2 and Part 3) contains some of the most Canadian of television, jam packed with doubles and runbacks to go with vintage sports cable coverage. It is always wild to see bleachers filled with curling fans in the standard def era. They’ve been doing this for a while.
Show them the Rachel Homan thin double.
This is quickly becoming just a post about “shots that I really like” and that’s fine. It’s what you want to share. It’s what they want to see, even if they don’t know it. The brevity of the highlight doesn’t contain the vastness of what Michelle Englot and Team Manitoba did to Rachel Homan and Team Ontario, beating them once in the round robin and once in the 1-2 game. And while Ontario had control most of the game, Manitoba was starting at their best possible chance against three. But in 2017 you weren’t going to score three on Rachel Homan. It wasn’t happening. This thin double was proof of that. The teamwork needed to make this shot was incredible. And the reaction of Homan’s dad adds to the pleasantness.
Show them the 2004 Brier final.
One of the biggest comebacks in curling history, Nova Scotia was down four points with three ends to play. Mark Dacey’s boys got a three, a force, and a 10th end for the ages, with three perfect draws to sew up a 10-9 victory and stop Randy Ferbey from winning his fourth straight.
Show them the Kerri Einarson chip for two.
An obligatory inclusion. No explanation needed. Let’s all watch it again. This shot just freakin’ ruled.
Show them the 2009 world championship final.
Sometimes it’s not all about shots. Sometimes it’s the discussion. Once Kevin Martin said “no hang on, let’s think about this for a second,” we were off to the races. An entirely coordinated and logical discussion that resulted in him electing to waste his first skip stone. It didn’t go well.
Show them the 2012 USA women’s championships semifinal.
I can’t embed it, but it’s here. Aileen Geving made a quintuple raise double to lay two, shot of the year by many standards, except it was negated when Cassie Potter made a tight in-off bump to score her point for the victory. Also show them this because Potter is the one in the cat GIF.
Show them their nearest curling club.
Maybe they want to play. Maybe they just want to watch. But you know they’re going to have a great time. Do the work and find their nearest club for them.
Show them this newsletter. Maybe?
Don’t forget getting tagged in the video of the beaver riding the stone down to the house.