Brad Jacobs reached for Brad Gushue’s hand in the first moments after Gushue’s curling career came to a close on Saturday, and said the words on everybody’s mind.

“Congrats on a great career, pal,” Jacobs said. “You’re the best ever.”

As the sold-out crowd at the Brier in St. John’s gave Gushue one final send off, Jacobs was whisked through a curtain to speak to reporters.

The Team Canada skip was effusive about his longtime rival, saying it was fitting Gushue’s career ended with one last battle of the Brads.

“He’s been a guy that we’ve been chasing for a long, long time. Long, long time. He raised the bar in curling. I’ve said that many times. As he got older, he continued to get better. And I think that’s something I respected more than anything,” Jacobs said.

“He set a great example for all of us, and [we’re] just trying to win as much as we can to catch up.”

Gushue came up short in his last Brier, acknowledging afterwards that he was no longer the best in the country, and hadn’t been for some time. But his peers in the curling world say he’ll go down as one of — if not the — best to ever play the game.

Longtime Quebec skip Jean-Michel Ménard first faced off against Gushue at the national junior championships in 1996. They’d face each other dozens more times over the next 30 years, with Gushue winning the vast majority of their matchups.

Ménard — who also retired at the end of the tournament — said it’s not the wins and losses he’ll remember, but the passion Gushue brought to the game.

“Very fierce competitor,” Ménard said of Gushue. “An amazing drawer. For making draws, one of the best, if not the best of all time.”

Gushue finished his career with six Brier titles — the most of any skip in Canadian curling history.

He won Olympic gold in 2006, with the provincial government shutting down schools so kids could watch the final instead of attending classes. He added an Olympic bronze in 2022

Gushue also racked up a whopping 15 Grand Slam titles throughout his career, ranking second in men’s curling behind only Kevin Martin.

With his reputation as a competitor on and off the ice, it’s no surprise Gushue came into his final tournament with a target still on his back.

Eventual champion Matt Dunstone — the 30-year-old Manitoba skip — said he knew he wanted to unseat Gushue from the moment it was announced the Brier would be held in St. John’s. To be the best, you have to beat the best.

He’d do his part, handing Gushue his first loss in the 1 vs. 2 qualifier game on Friday.

Team Dunstone paid respect to Gushue on social media following his last match on Saturday.

“You set the standard,” the team wrote in a message to Gushue. “A true competitor, a true professional, and without question the GOAT [greatest of all time] of the game.

The sport won’t feel the same without you out there. The respect was always real, and the competition made all of us better.”

For his part, Brad Gushue said he wants to be remembered as someone who helped grow the game, especially in his home province.

Curling wasn’t a big sport in Newfoundland and Labrador before Team Gushue took the province by storm during its run to the Olympic podium in 2006.

The effect was evident throughout the Brier, as draw after draw was packed with fans whether Gushue was playing or not. Attendance for the tournament topped 143,000 tickets sold.

Gushue said he hopes the local interest in the game translates to a new curling complex for St. John’s, where ice-time is hard to come by.

Aside from that, he hesitated to comment on what he thought his legacy would be.

“It’s not really my decision to determine how people are going to remember me. I don’t focus on it. Hopefully they have good memories. Hopefully they don’t think I was an asshole,” he laughed.

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