i remember reading this (guess which magazine?!) thinking "what the f*ck was he thinking?" great story!I’ve known Jeremy Salm since he was the captain of Washington Reign more than ten years ago. I admit I don’t know him all that well, but well enough that I was stunned when I saw first hand what he did at the 2002 World Cup. In the space of a few short minutes, Jeremy Salm, the field captain of Avalanche, went from one of the most respected players in the sport of paintball to one of the most despised. Sneaking into the woods adjacent to one of the World Cup's ten-man fields, he shot at numerous members of Ground Zero Gold as they played against Avalanche. Salm was caught red-handed, suspended from the ’Cup and from an entire year of professional tournament play, and his team was stripped of its scores and removed from the event. He was dropped by his sponsors and fired from his job at Warped Sportz.
When asked by one of our reporters why he did it, Salm replied, “While playing the five-man [part of the event], I noticed the possibility of pulling something like that off, but then never thought more of it. It was literally a last second thing, and I really don't know why I did it. There was really no need to do it. It was true that I was in pain because I had broken my hand; maybe the painkillers clouded my judgment. However, I'm not going to use that as an excuse. It was more of a last second decision, and I have no idea what caused me to do it.”
Decent people do indecent things sometimes. That’s simply the way it is. Since the incident, Salm was hired by Renick Miller, owner of Chicago Aftershock, to coach and run his team. It’s been two years since Mr. “U” literally dragged Salm out of the woods at that World Cup and I for one, haven’t forgotten what it felt like that day. I can only imagine what it felt like for him. - John Amodea
76. Fall, 2002