My awareness of the sport known as "Cornhole" comes via a longtime reader of my personal blog named Mark, a former American soldier now living in Bulgaria. Mark is quite tuned in to all things gay — it was Mark who educated me on the "power bottom" phenomenon that became a minor internet meme after I posted something on Gawker about it — and he wanted to make me aware of this pulsating hot new "sport" when he learned that I was editing Deadspin today. He writes:

Cajun honey,

Have you ever cornholed anyone (or been cornholed)? I have been out of the USA for a while and I was shocked to learn that cornholing has become a team sport in Appalachia. And how amazing that Tennessee's über Republican first congressional district has become a hotbed of cornholing in the USA! Although I am in a committed relationship, as your good friend I am willing to cornhole you and let you cornhole me (but not in a vacant lot). It pleases me to no end that an underground sport (usually practiced behind prison walls and privately by gay men) has become so mainstream. Even women are into cornholing! Did you know there is an American Cornhole Association: http://www.playcornhole.org/join.shtml The first person I ever cornholed was a drunken U.S. Coast Guard... Please tell me about your own knowledge of this sport. Do you think that we will ever see cornholing at the Olympic games? Isn't cornholing sort of a metaphor for the U.S. tax code? Do cajuns cornhole? Practice makes perfect, baby!

Peace,
Mark

So what exactly do participants in the sport of Cornhole do? Here's how the sport's official website describes it:

Cornhole or Corn Toss is similar to horseshoes except you use wooden boxes called cornhole platforms and corn bags instead of horseshoes and metal stakes. Contestants take turns pitching their corn bags at the cornhole platform until a contestant reaches the score of 21 points. A corn bag in the hole scores 3 points, while one on the platform scores 1 point.

So there you go! Contestants take turns placing their corn sacks, rather than oblong rods, into a cornhole. You're welcome.

And, as always, thanks for your amazing gay insight Mark.

UPDATE: Cornhole is apparently HUGE in Chicago!

It's been my experience that the only thing more popular in Cincinnati than playing cornhole is going to Kentucky for the night life. For the uninitiated cornhole is an intensely complicated game where you toss bean bags into holes. It's impossible to go to any sporting event in the Midwest or the South and not find people playing. For a day at least cornhole took over Chicago's Soldier Field.

Cue the Pulitzer winning Chicago Tribune, "With a soft thump, Guy's bag dropped through a small hole in the ramp, dragging another yellow bag down with it for a double score."

And the Tribune managed to pin down cornhole enthusiasts as they waxed eloquent on the game. "'It's the sound of summer to me," said Ed O'Sullivan of Mundelein, who closely watched the player he called 'the Tiger Woods of bags' with an awed respect." More? "You’ve got your beer in one hand and your bag in the other—that’s what it’s all about,” said Danny Quiros, 30, of Forest Park.

Yep, Cornhole owes its popularity to the fact that it's impossible to say anything without a double entendre ensuing.

Tossers of all stripes battle in Soldier Field [Chicago Tribune]

Chicago's Soldier Field Host to Cornhole Classic [SportsbyBrooks]