Darren Appleton Video: "Banned! My Story"

Black-Balled

Black-Balled

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I could probably talk endlessly about the administrative end of the matter...but I think it would be an injustice not to mention that Daz has always been a classy guy, honorable competitor and all around asset to pool.

I'm sure that fact is not overlooked by any pool venture .

Get um, Daz. By the throat. Win lots.
 
Poolmanis

Poolmanis

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Darren got my respect handling this.
He made mistake because he lost his calm. We all do it sometimes. Shit happens.
But he is stand up guy and made a video about it. I think he explained things as good he could.
Cleared air... So to say.
He can look people in eyes after this. Many don´t have balls to do what Darren did on that video!

Now he can wait to punishment to pass and put some practice time with clear mind.
 
J

JAM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I checked out the Darren Appleton's video this morning, and there are over 30,000 views at the time of this writing. The pool world is watching, and though there are mixed feelings about whether the punishment is just or not just, I think Darren has gained a whole new cadre of fans.

Pool is such a fractured industry, with only the top, maybe, 2 percent of professional pool players making a profit, in my opinion. I guess the WPA needs to spend some of that money by wealthy sponsors around the world who grease their palms for granting them WPA sanctioning. What is the worth of the WPA sanction? I remember years ago, a pool event in USA was WPA-sanctioned, and when the players did not get paid, the WPA was radio silent.

To administer a drug test while a professional competition is in progress is flat-out wrong. I am disappointed at how some in the C-suite of pool organizations have reacted to this injustice handed out by the WPA and/or its independent contractors who do the tests. If drug tests need to be done, do it before or after the tournament, not while the tournament is in progress.

I never thought I'd contemplate this thought after the UPA debacle, but the professional pool players need a union, an organization to represent them to handle situations like this when the WPA believes they're The Wizard of Oz. Pull back the curtain and see what they really do for pool as a sport. I've been in the pool racket for literally decades, and I see pool as a sport barely treading water.

I am 100 percent a huge fan of Barry Hearn and would love to learn his thoughts on this Darren Appleton suspension and fine and additional punishment. Darren isn't on drugs. He didn't dump or fix a match. He showed emotion. I'd like to know who the WPA test person is. I'd like to learn about their experience and background. No seasoned professional would have carried out a drug test in this manner.
 
Poolplaya9

Poolplaya9

Tellin' it like it is...
Silver Member
SLO-ROLL said:
He got banned and fined for cursing. No threats, nothing physical, no property damage. Yes or no?
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We don't know exactly what the fine was for but it doesn't appear that it was for simply cursing.

I think it could be reasonably argued that telling someone they need to wipe the smile off their face is an implied threat. I think it could also be reasonably argued that throwing things out of anger like bottles and cue cases full of cues is a threatening or menacing type behavior.

The type of person that has that little control over their behavior and reactions is the same type of person that would assault somebody or that would come back to work the next day and shoot the place up. People are wanting to make excuses for Darren's behavior but it sounds like it very well could have been the type of behavior that needs to be taken pretty seriously.

I tend to agree with others though about being punished separately by both the WPA and Matchroom. The only thing I can figure is that the WPA was in charge of punishing for situation with the drug tester since the drug testing guy is under their umbrella so to speak, and then Matchroom was handling the punishment for the situations with their employee/s and the rest. If that was the case then it was a big failure of Matchroom and/or Darren to have not been much more clear about that. If that was not the case then Matchroom should never have handed off the punishment to someone else if they weren't ready to fully accept the punishment regardless of what it was including if they felt it was too low. If they knew there was some minimum threshold of punishment that would have to be met before they could be happy then they should have just handled it themselves and not involved a third party.
 
Woodshaft

Woodshaft

Do what works for YOU!
Darren was pissed about the unsportsmanlike behavior of Josh Filler. The kid took a break to wipe off his shaft before his tap-in winning shot which pissed Darren off and Darren jumped out of his chair and conceded the match, angrily shook Josh's hand, and grumbled putting his equipment away. Josh then, being the douche that he is, did a loud war chant to piss Darren off more. Darren was pissed at Josh. The drug-test inquiry pushed his anger over. I respect Darren. Josh- while he is probably the best player on the planet- needs to learn to be humble, or the other top players will find a way to knock him down. Darren my friend, you will be just fine!
 
couldnthinkof01

couldnthinkof01

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Woodshaft said:
Darren was pissed about the unsportsmanlike behavior of Josh Filler. The kid took a break to wipe off his shaft before his tap-in winning shot which pissed Darren off and Darren jumped out of his chair and conceded the match, angrily shook Josh's hand, and grumbled putting his equipment away. Josh then, being the douche that he is, did a loud war chant to piss Darren off more. Darren was pissed at Josh. The drug-test inquiry pushed his anger over. I respect Darren. Josh- while he is probably the best player on the planet- needs to learn to be humble, or the other top players will find a way to knock him down. Darren my friend, you will be just fine!
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Pointing a finger at Josh is nonsense. Daz went off the handle. It happens. That's where the blame lies and Darren said as much.
 
M

middleofnowhere

Registered
SLO-ROLL said:
He got banned and fined for cursing. No threats, nothing physical, no property damage. Yes or no?
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The actual bottom line is this, we were not there and have only heard one side of the story. Unless they are completely unreasonable jerks, there was more to it then we know. Also, we have all seen the guy being handcuffed on TV because he mouthed off to a cop. There is a way an adult acts in a situation like this and Mr. Appleton acted like a child. He created it all himself.

He said in his message he will never do it again. I am sure he won’t but it may have taken something like this to assure that. People use the term “Made an example of”. That is almost the basis of all law enforcement. If you see no consequences then it assumed there are none. It is a lot better to learn from what you see happen to someone else then have it happen to you. If he is smart, he will never mention it again in public and move on.
 
336Robin

336Robin

Multiverse Operative
Silver Member
I don't have the patience to watch the video or read 5k replies here. What happened. The one sentence version.
 
T

The_JV

'AZB_Combat Certified'
Woodshaft said:
Darren was pissed about the unsportsmanlike behavior of Josh Filler. The kid took a break to wipe off his shaft before his tap-in winning shot which pissed Darren off and Darren jumped out of his chair and conceded the match, angrily shook Josh's hand, and grumbled putting his equipment away. Josh then, being the douche that he is, did a loud war chant to piss Darren off more. Darren was pissed at Josh. The drug-test inquiry pushed his anger over. I respect Darren. Josh- while he is probably the best player on the planet- needs to learn to be humble, or the other top players will find a way to knock him down. Darren my friend, you will be just fine!
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Thank you for injecting some more entertainment value into this thread. It was dying off too quickly.
 
E

eg9327

Active member
I've known people "into" drugs. Typically they barely make a go at having a productive life, let alone something like top flight professional pool. Druggies own behavior would weed rhem out. For Matchroom and WPA it is more like virtue signaling. I don't condone Darren's outburst, but I can see repeated testing and accompanying pressure as being exasperating.
 
D

DeeDeeCues

Well-known member
eg9327 said:
I've known people "into" drugs. Typically they barely make a go at having a productive life, let alone something like top flight professional pool. Druggies own behavior would weed rhem out. For Matchroom and WPA it is more like virtue signaling. I don't condone Darren's outburst, but I can see repeated testing and accompanying pressure as being exasperating.
Click to expand...

Nice point.

Counterpoints:

Lance Armstrong
Barry Bonds
The entire 1990's Chinese women's swim team
Marion Barry
Charlie Sheen

So many people are saying that drugs aren't performance enhancing for pool. They are wrong. Drugs that help with energy, concentration, mood, nerves, endurance, etc. can all be potentially helpful.
 
O

Oze147

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I don't know, if this is a language problem, but reading through some of the comments, I don't know if some posters understand what WADA really does.

In German, there is a big difference between "drugs" aka Kokain, Exstacy, Speed etc. (and under certain circumstances alcohol, nicotine, weed) and "doping" aka performance enhancing medicaments.
I know, that in English "drugs" can stand for Crack and Aspirin at the same time, but I think, what some people here have to understand is, that WADA doesn't do tests to find some crackheads, but to look for athletes, who are using perfectly fine substances, which have side effects that can help their performances during competition.
And everyone who says that this isn't a big deal, doesn't really understand how small the gap between a champion and the guy who always come second really is.

In my opinion, if pool wants to be taking siriously as a sport, doping tests are a necessity and if a player can't handle that at any time anywhere, he hasn't understand the signs of time.
 
kling&allen

kling&allen

Registered
Oze147 said:
I don't know, if this is a language problem, but reading through some of the comments, I don't know if some posters understand what WADA really does.

In German, there is a big difference between "drugs" aka Kokain, Exstacy, Speed etc. (and under certain circumstances alcohol, nicotine, weed) and "doping" aka performance enhancing medicaments.
I know, that in English "drugs" can stand for Crack and Aspirin at the same time, but I think, what some people here have to understand is, that WADA doesn't do tests to find some crackheads, but to look for athletes, who are using perfectly fine substances, which have side effects that can help their performances during competition.
And everyone who says that this isn't a big deal, doesn't really understand how small the gap between a champion and the guy who always come second really is.

In my opinion, if pool wants to be taking siriously as a sport, doping tests are a necessity and if a player can't handle that at any time anywhere, he hasn't understand the signs of time.
Click to expand...

My complaint is very few sports apply WADA and use sport specific testing instead.
 
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