For 10-15 long minutes, Brad Gushue sat staring at the sheet of ice at Rexall Place where he had just lost the 3-4 Page Playoff game to Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario by 6-5, pondering what might have been.
His eyes were red-rimmed and moist when he finally stood up and began to make his way through the tunnel to the mixed zone to talk with a media scrum.
Just before he joined Canadian Curling Association communications director Al Cameron, though, Gushue stopped and removed his team shirt, giving it to a kid who was hanging out with his parents by the boards. He tossed a water bottle the kid’s way, also.
As he turned and proceeded through the tunnel, a slightly refreshed adult fan leaned over the railing and asked: “Hey Brad, how about a picture?”
Gushue stopped, turned and said: “I’m not at my best right now.”
Still, he shook the fan’s hand, who snapped his photo anyway of a despondent Gushue, who still had the grace to take care of a couple of fans.
That’s grace. That’s class.
