1999 Brier
SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Curling
1999 BRIER
ON THE ROCKS
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
It's the roarin' game, not the borin' game!
It was during the 1989 Brier in Saskatoon that Howard finally snapped. He'd seen enough of Eskimo bowling. It may have been fine for the club curler, but the style of game in those days did nothing to attract the casual fan.
Howard lost the semifinal to Rick Folk, then watched one of the most boring finals in history as Edmonton's Pat Ryan beat Folk in a 3-2 snoozer.
"Remember that?'' said Howard. "Oh, my God. Neither team would mix it up. Pat Ryan's second or vice made the roll and that was it. Boom, boom, boom, boom. I know it takes talent to do that, but it doesn't take talent to watch it.''
Enough already, thought Howard.
"We were in the semi and we had been playing this bang, bang, bang, bang on dead straight ice,'' said Howard. "Hit, hit, hit, hit, hit. We lost to Ricky bang, bang, bang. I watched the final and was probably in a bad mood to watch it, but that was one of the most boring games I've ever seen. That doesn't sell curling. This does.''
Later that year, he proposed a wrinkle that he and his brother Glenn had been using during practices since 1985.
"Glenn and I used to play against each other one-on-one,'' said Howard. "One of us would get two or three ahead and it was peel, peel, peel. Finally one of us said, this is crazy, let's play some finesse shots, and the first three rocks we threw could not be removed.''
Howard convinced the organizers of the Moncton 100 cashspiel later that year to allow the option of placing up to four rocks between the hog line and house. Those could not be removed. Although Europeans embraced the original rule and have pushed its use at world championships, Canada modified Howard's original idea.
"It helped Glenn and I,'' said Howard. "In the late '80s and early '90s, we had a distinct advantage. We were playing finesse against teams that really didn't want to play finesse. All of a sudden, the Kevin Martins and these guys go better and there's absolutely no advantage to it.
"You can get burned. I've lost games by a million but so what? You've got to go down and try. To bang up and down the ice and lose 3-2 isn't much of a feeling either. It's certainly entertaining.''
The irony of that one is 10 years later, Howard is now a golf pro in the city where he helped revolutionize the game.
"This is what curling's all about, right here,'' said Howard, who's averaging just under eight points a game this week. "You've got a great crowd every time, a beautiful surface, lots of curl.''
The best part of the way today's game has evolved is the way a team can battle back from a deficit. In the old days, all you needed was one miss from the other guys and it was game over.
"How many peels do you see out there?'' said Howard. '`In the old days, a guy could get a 2-0 lead and it would be like watching paint dry. You would not have the draws out there, I guarantee it. I know I'm biased because I invented the rule, but I really do believe it's made a big difference in the game.''
He's right. No lead is safe. There's more of an element of doubt. The entertainment value, with a myriad of possibilities with more than one rock in play, has been spectator-friendly.
"Even that game against Alberta where we got up five,'' said Howard. "After that, it was still a very entertaining game. I still had to make my last shot to win the game. That would never work out. People would leave.
"We might be hurting the Brier Patch because people are hanging around watching the games.''
They're watching and buzzing about what shot the skip is going to call next.
"It's so interesting now because there's so many options,'' said Howard. "They're saying, 'they could have done this,' or, `they should have done this.' Whereas before it's like, put it out front until you get a miss. There's no strategy involved in that.''
Howard is already in the curling Hall of Fame as a player. It would be a crime if some day he's not inducted as a builder.