Curlers: between a rock and a hard place

“Curling is cool,” the CNBC promos keep insisting, in between shots of Jim Cramer going nuts. And it is pretty cool. I watched the end of the U.S. women’s match against Sweden yesterday, and even though I had no idea what was going on (the announcers tend to speak in code), it was entertaining. There’s something about the U.S. curlers, the women and the men, that seems somewhat removed from the glitzy, ultracommercialized images of athletes like Bode Miller and Gretchen Bleiler. Maybe it’s because they all seem to come from the same small town in Minnesota. It’s refreshing, although it probably won’t earn them any extra cash. Nike sponsors the team, but I can’t find any mention of individual endorsement deals. U.S. skip Cassie Johnson and her sister Jamie (shown here) are 15 months apart in age, but maybe they could pass for Doublemint twins? UPDATE: YesButNoButYes points out that the U.S. women’s curling team has a blog. There are precious few posts, but one of them has received 495 comments. And they say no one cares about curling.