Way to go, Bro

HAMILTON – Well, here they are, ladies and gentlemen... your Canadian men’s curling champions.

At last. Now those white belts will match perfectly with Canada’s uniform colours.

Wonder if the other Team Canada, skipped by Kelly Scott – the alleged originators of the “No Pregancies” rule – will have anything to say to these victorious jokesters when they meet up at April’s Players’ Championship in Calgary?

And if you’ve still not clicked on the highlighted link in the lead sentence, we’re showing it to you again. And now for a third time. In other words, WATCH THIS NOW. Great stuff.

The photo above – by TCN Photo Editor Anil Mungal – shows Olympian Russ Howard congratulating his brother Glenn. And if you look carefully, you can see a good chunk of the Howard family clan beaming in the background. Nice touch with the trigger, Anil.

But did any photog catch Russ pumping his fist for Glenn during the final? The Wounded Moose chose to cheer for family over his former Olympic teammates, declaring that “blood is thicker than Screech.” No real surprise there.

There’s lots to read on the Brier in today’s media, so we’ll leave the bulk of the curling surfing to you, save for a couple of standouts that caught our eye. Specifically:

• Who’s the best ever? Sun Media took a quick crop poll on the Hamilton media bench but, of course, real curling fans have been there and debated that already... and they’ve even mulled over the best to never win a Brier ...

• Here’s one who is now out of that club: Richard Hart waxed philisophical about the 1998 Olympics after yesterday’s big win ...

• Interesting that a Brier media sponsor – we are assuming, of course – would publish a feature like this just as the event starts to climax... thoughts anyone?

• And in today’s same publication, an interesting opinion from Steve Milton: crazy as it sounds, he says the Brier needs to come back to Hamilton within five years ...

• Torstar’s Chris Zelkovitch seems to write a curling “appeal” column like this every year ’round this time, but we enjoy each one nonetheless ...

• And then there’s poor Gary Washburn; he’s simply baffled by the Brier as he visited from Seattle. Hamilton versus Newfoundland..? Hmm.

Too bad that Gary, like other media types, rarely gets the chance to just sit in front of a TV and watch (and hear) curling unfold before his very eyes. These guys, you see, are always working.

Take Mike, for example.

He’s not a journalist and he just plain loves curling. Not only has he never thrown a rock – like many U.S. scribes – he actually has “no f**king idea what’s going on”... and he loves it. There are lots out there just like Mike.

And speaking of The Blogosphere, there’s a goodly amount of curling commentary out there, so why not browse and compare these amateurs (below) with those professionals (above)?

In no particular order, we have JetBoots and his personal Brier wrap; followed by this far-out discussion on the “Canadadian sport of Moose Curling” ... and of course there’s Matt, who also scribbles for The Curling News, who posted a post about posting at the Brier. Er, sort of. Anyway, we like the Johnny Mac photo.

There’s also Townie Bastard who thinks Brier finalist Brad Gushue was a tad lucky heading into the final (but obviously not yesterday)... Jessmo who opines about Gushue’s search for respect... and finally, how about curling as a tactical engagement? And discussed as such amongst military afficionados? Check out this posting and feel free to jump in; ’tis an interesting concept that sadly seems in need of a kick-start.

That’s all for now, almost...

• DID YOU KNOW? ... that Canada and Scotland won the junior worlds?

• DID YOU KNOW II? ... that NBCSports.com will provide live webstreaming of Team USA curling games from the imminent Aomori and upcoming Edmonton world championships? This is pretty big news, if you think about it...