It’s not often I get to use the phrase “darts controversy,” but we’ve got ourselves a dart controversy courtesy of Justin Pipe and ... “COUGHGATE!”
#Coughgate is the controversy tearing the competitive darts world apart
You MUST pick a side.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Bernie Smith was going for his match dart in the 2018 World Darts Championships when Pipe took a step toward him, coughed loudly, and caused him to miss — or so say critics. There are some big-time feelings about this cough, and most darts fans are livid:
Others aren’t so sure ...
Brilliant gamesmanship or beyond the pale? That’s the struggle darts fans are having on Thursday night. I believe I may have found the smoking gun though. While learning about Pipe, the cougher in question, I discovered this interesting tidbit about him from Wikipedia:
An “avid bagpiper,” eh? An expert at the world’s most-distracting instrument. How curious. This is also a man who knows how to control his lungs to deliver the dulcet squeals from his bagpipe. There is no way Pipe didn’t know his cough would be loud, pronounced, and distracting.
I’m with the gaters on this one. Coughgate is real.
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