This is not about politics, really. It's about the image of the game. What mother and father would encourage their children to learn pool after seeing clips like this? Classless drunks fighting and cursing, who'd want that for their son or daughter?
What corporation would sponsor an "athlete" who behaves like a clown? It's bad business to do so, who knows what such a person is going to do next or has done in the past, on camera? Is he going to stomp a cat, call black people the n-word, who knows? To a company it's just a completely unnecessary risk for them to take. Better to sponsor a golfer (who sign contracts to ensure that they behave), or any other athlete, really. Pool is like the worst possible risk/return ratio of any sport. The worst behaving "athletes" and the lowest viewership. If you sponsor a football player, or a basketball player, at least you get some good exposure when they behave, and you can be damned sure they apologize when they don't. Even the pool fans don't hold the players accountable, because we don't expect any better from them. Listening to some of you on here, is like listening to an abused spouse talk about their significant other. "95% of the time, he's the sweetest guy in the world, it's just when he drinks, he can't control his temper". "Things are tough for him now, he doesn't have a job".
We all know there is no one to sanction people like this. It doesn't mean we have to endorse it or like it. That is entirely different from doxing people or trying to get the fired or whatever. If I owned a pool hall, I'd probably think twice about inviting these players, because I'd want to protect customers or players from scummy people like this. People behaving in this manner spoils the atmosphere of a room and disrupts play in the entire room. Nobody wants that. It's not about going after these people, it's about protecting the pool playing establishment, other players and whatever image the sport has left.
and brought the FBI to the event before it even started.
fair???
