Prior to the 2025 Brier, Alberta skip Brad Jacobs believed his team were the underdogs.
"We didn't get very many TV games until we got into the playoffs. We kind of flew under the radar," Jacobs told The SportsCage.
"There was a lot of talk about [Brad] Gushue winning six, they're still team Canada and you need to beat them. There's a lot of talk about [Matt] Dunstone's team being the number one ranked team in Canada going into that event, they had a lot of attention. I think we kind of flew under the radar in our pool and kept building and building and building."
Jacobs can pinpoint one moment during the tournament when he realized his team had a chance to win it all.
"We worked our way through those playoffs, we built more and more confidence. Especially, I would say, after we got the hugest break of all time with Brad missing his last and winning that semifinal," Jacobs recalled.
"I can speak for myself, I really felt like it was becoming destiny. How do you get a big break like that and not go all the way? Even that helps with the mentality of things."
The semifinal concluded with Jacobs’ team beating Brad Gushue's rink 7-5 and going on to the final against Team Manitoba, which Matt Dunstone leads. Jacobs’ team defeated Team Dunstone 5-3, winning the 2025 Brier, which snapped a skid for Jacobs and some of his teammates.
"That was the fifth for Marc Kennedy, he hadn't won the Brier in nine years. For me, I hadn't won the Brier in 12," Jacobs said.
"We were relieved that it was all over with, it was a relatively nice, simple shot to win, but we still have to make it. We've been waiting for a big moment all season and that's when it happened. I remember when Ben Hebert started heading towards me and I was blacking out -- I think we all were. I remember as he got closer and closer to me, I thought we better slow down here because he's got like probably 30 pounds on me and I hope he doesn't run me over."
The first time Jacobs won the Brier was in 2013 when he was the skip for Northern Ontario. Overall, Jacobs's trophy cabinet consists of 10 different medals from a variety of competitions. He won gold medals in the 2013 Olympics trials and the 2014 Winter Olympics, plus he's won two Briers, one in 2013 and the other in 2025.
"The Olympic medal is actually on the nightstand beside the bed," Jacobs said. "I said to Shauna when I got home from this Brier: 'Now we can actually put something up in our rec room above the garage and dedicate a wall to some of the stuff that we've been able to accomplish in curling.' I haven't done that yet, so I think now is the time. Having got that second Brier, we'd love to put a World Championship, some memorabilia up from that and try to win this week. It's chilling, it's sitting beside the bed, it will have a permanent spot soon."
One of Jacobs' teammates is Hebert, who is from Regina, Saskatchewan.
"He's someone that you want to play with that will stick up for you and will run through a wall for you," Jacobs explained. "When you play against him, which I played against him and these guys most of my career, you want to hate him big time -- you really want to hate him. It's nice to be on the other side with Ben now. We've developed a really great, strong relationship right from the beginning."
Jacobs and his team will compete in the World Curling Championship, which runs in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan from March 29 to April 6.
