Contact controversy at The Brier: Did Northern Ontario cross a physical line in its game against Ontario?

There's a worn out joke about "full-contact curling" that's made the rounds over the years.

While the contact was certainly not full by most anybody's measure, the team from Northern Ontario is being accused by some of overstepping the line of good sportsmanship at this year's Brier.

In fact, according to a post by Gerry Geurts at Curlingzone.com, there may be a protest filed by the aggrieved team in this matter, Mark Kean's Fenelon Falls foursome, representing Ontario.

There's some video evidence to support the claim of foul, stemming from a Monday night game that saw Brad Jacobs' Sault Ste. Marie team defeat Kean's rink, 7-3.

Nothing too serious, if you measure by the actual force of the physical contact. Still, in a sport that celebrates  a long, long tradition of good manners and sportsmanship during play, it does seem a little galling that one team would take it upon themselves to deliver a few 'love taps' to opposition shooters after they've delivered a stone.

Case in point, a video from the game that you can see by clicking here.

Very clearly, you can see that Ontario third Matt Camm has his ankle struck by a broom just after he has released a stone during the third end of the game. Since two of his teammates are just ahead of him sweeping his rock and his other teammate - skip Mark Kean is at the other end calling the shot, we can safely assume the broom in question belongs to someone from Northern Ontario.

There is another bit of video, not quite so damning, that Curling Canada, itself, posted on its Facebook page, where they asked the question: "Fair or Foul? E.J. Harnden gives Mark Kean a little tap reminding him to keep his knees off the ice. Appropriate or unsportsmanlike?"

There was no shyness about the matter as dozens and dozens of comments were posted below the video. As you can imagine, the comments ran the gamut, from 'it's outrageous' to 'it was deserved.'

Now, there is an underlying problem at play here. Too many curlers are releasing their stone and then staying on their knees as they watch the rock travel down the ice. That's bad form and something, as a curler, you're taught not to do almost as lesson one, day one.

So, the Ontario players - Camm and Kean in these instances, showed bad form in staying down on the ice. As Geurts reports in his blog, the Ontarians were accused of the same poor form in a game against Alberta the day before.

However, they are far from the only offenders. Many elite level curlers do it entirely too often and that includes occasions where the boys from The Soo, who seemed to be bothered by the practice Monday night, have done the same thing, themselves.

For those who aren't well-versed in curling etiquette, an explanation as to why keeping your knees (and sometimes hands) on the ice is a bad thing: It melts the ice in that spot and can damage the pebble on the surface. That can lead to trouble with shots later in the game as a rock traveling over that spot can be affected in its trajectory. Might not seem like much, but when you're talking about needing to be accurate to within an inch on a shot that you released a hundred feet away, it can mean the difference between success and failure, winning and losing.

Generally speaking, all players need to be much more aware of  getting to their feet after a shot.

If the young men from Ontario were lax in that regard, fine. They need to be straightened out. But not during a game, at least not in that fashion. According to Geurts, in his blog at CurlingZone, he spoke with Glenn Howard afterward. The four-tine Brier champion was reportedly unimpressed. "To see these guys hit another player, it's disappointing and not part of the game," Howard told Geurts. Howard, whose son Scott plays lead for the Ontario team, agreed that the leaving of knee or handprints on the ice is also unacceptable. 

No, the raps on the ankles weren't hurtful, but they were distracting and that ain't good curling, either. A player is obviously heavily invested in the outcome of the shot he's just put in motion and his input as to whether that shot is off to a good start is crucial. He'd like all his attention to be focused there, not elsewhere.

The Olympic champions from Northern Ontario really should keep their brooms to themselves. You can be fairly certain that, if one of them forgot himself after a shot and received the same treatment from an opponent, they'd be none too pleased about it either.

Hands and knees off the ice, fellas. Brooms on it.

UPDATE: CURLING CANADA, NORTHERN ONTARIO REACT TO CONTROVERSY