Fran,
Your comments on here are greatly appreciated as they shed some light on how long this behavior by Earl has been going on. I am very curious if you know yourself or know someone who can actually pinpoint when this behavior actually started showing up at pool tournaments or other facets in his life. I remember the little, skinny, long-haired Earl that use to hang with the Rempe, Sigel, Hall, Hopkins, etc. crowd but I don't remember the antics that we see in him today. Did this start in his teens years? 20's? 30's? Maybe there was a stressor in his life that caused him to start exhibiting these behavioral signs. I don't know. It would be nice if people "in the know" could shed further light onto this subject so that we may be better able to understand him and his problems. It's truly a sad story.
I hope he overcomes whatever it is he needs to overcome.
Maniac
I'm a huge fan of Earl & have been since the 1980's. Here's my take on what's happened to cause so many of his outbursts....
Used to be that just about everybody in any audience that watched Earl play would watch almost in awe of him. Watch some of the very early matches & you constantly here people yelling FOR Earl. "Go Earl!", "get him Earl!", "great shot Earl!" on & on.
But after 2002, when he won his last of 6 World 9 Ball Championships, his play, for whatever reason, wasn't as sharp or steady as it had been for years. And this clearly bothered Earl. And he mumbled at himself or showed demonstrative actions at and away from the table. And slowly at first, a man in the crowd would say something disrespectful to Earl. And Earl had never heard that kind of heckling directed at him before. Then it wasn't just one or two hecklers every once in a while, it was hecklers just watching & waiting for any chance to rag on him. And the longer he went without winning a major, and the worse his play got, and the more he acted up out of frustration, the more people took pot shots at him TO SEE HIM ACT OUT. And all of a sudden, Earl went into tournaments EXPECTING to be in a war of words with the fans.
He was once revered & highly respected, our most decorated tournament winner of all time. And slowly over the years, some of the fans saw that he gave a heated reacation to their barbs, so they kept on with the jabs, hoping to get a reaction out of him. And then, when Earl would yell something back, instead of that shutting that person up, it added fuel to some fans fire. And a vicious cycle was created....
Earl is one of my all-time favorite players, right up there with Lassiter. But it's getting harder & harder to defend him because he sometimes acts out towards innocent fans or, maybe even worse, some of HIS own fans. Earl has always been exceptionally friendly & polite to me. He has even THANKED me for being a fan! He is an amazing person if he likes you, because he is so in love with the sport and really wanted pool to be as big as golf is in his life time. Or while he was in his prime. But pool never got that big, and Earl's glory days are part of pooldoms history now.
He was once a pool icon, now, some fans know how to push his buttons. And Earl is expecting that, so he's a "tea-pot almost ready to whistle" at any given moment.
One more thing....watch some of the matches where Earl wins the whole tournament. During the check & trophy presentation, Earl is THE epitomy of politeness & professionalism when thanking the sponsors and everyone else involved in the tournament. He represented pool in such a remarkably professional manner. It was obvious he was trying to bring the sport up a notch in the public's eye. He really wanted pool to end up a big time sport.
That it didn't was another huge diappointment for him. And he got even more frustrated that even his best efforts weren't enough to bring pool into the big time.
