I Should Be The New American Cornhole League Commissioner
I just read about the cornhole cheating scandal and have the following to say about it- I should be the new commissioner of the league. I am qualified and quite a good player as well.
Cornhole and Golf are really the only two sports I play these days. After growing up with basketball, football, and baseball - the commitments to those in your adult life are much more tedious. Finding a league is more difficult, it's not worth potentially getting hurt when you work in the cubes etc. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices. Easy games like golf have taken over. You can't pop a hammy in a scramble outing. You can't catch an elbow to the face when you play cornhole in someone's backyard. It becomes very clear taking up those two games is a much smarter decision in the grand scheme of things.
I clearly wasn't alone in this thought process because in the last 7 or 8 years, cornhole tournaments and leagues have picked up a lot of steam. It seemed like every watering hole in the suburbs started to have a cornhole night. Small entry fee, spend some money at the bar, either bring your own partner or get assigned via a blind draw and have a little competition on a weeknight. All fun ... no harm.
Having played in my share of tournaments, you notice there is very little argument on basically any level. Someone throws out of turn? "Agh shitt hey sorry man" "No problem.. it happens." ... Add up the score wrong? "No sweat let's figure it out."
A sport that often relies on having a drink in your hand can really ease the tension when it comes to arguing. People are super mellow playing cornhole. It's quite relaxing.
Now that doesn't mean there's not actions that people do that get under my skin at these tournaments. The hardos who measure out the 27 feet with a tape measure they brought is excessive. Again not the guy who organized the tournament, these are guys playing in the tournament taking it upon themselves to measure out the distance.
Then there's the guys who set up a tripod and film themselves play. That's always been dumb to me, but again... if it makes them happy that's great. Again, cornhole should always be a stress free game.
The one thing that annoys me the most, and annoyed me even more so when I helped organize a tournament, was the guys CONTINUOUSLY asking if they can use their own bags. In the tournament I organized this one guy texted me 4-5 times about it. When I walked in the bar the day of tournament, he was the first one to approach me about it again. Best part...he couldn't get a partner and didn't end up playing.
Now I get it, using your own bags brings comfort, you are used to the spin, the flight, the weight etc. And certain bags work best for certain people's throws more than others. But I can't help but think the ACL was waiting for a disaster to happen allowing players in high stakes tournaments to throw their own bags that they take home. How could you not anticipate a problem?
The ACL has themselves to blame for this controversy. If they wanted to keep things honest they would hire me to run the league. I would open up new bags that day and let everyone have time to break them in equally, or would have a pile of 40-50 bags I deemed acceptable, dump them out and let the player decide. When you allow players to bring home the bags themselves of course some tomfoolery is going to go down.