<![CDATA[Deadspin: Weird Sports]]> http://ganja.gawkerassets.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/deadspin.com.png <![CDATA[Deadspin: Weird Sports]]> http://deadspin.com/tag/weird sports http://deadspin.com/tag/weird sports <![CDATA[Finally, A Triathlon For Drunken Rageaholic Gamblers]]> Billiards and high-stakes poker are not exactly riveting spectator sports, but you know what would make them surefire TV entertainment? If at the end of each contest, players beat the crap out of each other. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5149651&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Land Of The Giants]]> One would think that a team with four seven-footers in the starting lineup wouldn't need a last-second shot to win. But this is the American Basketball Association, where the official rules more resemble Calvinball than anything. Why didn't someone inform us earlier that, in their finale against the Cape Cod Frenzy (yep) on March 11, the Nighthawks started the tallest lineup in professional basketball history, at least according to the Guinness Book of World Records: Sun Ming Ming (7-foot-9), former Washington Bullet Gheorghe Muresan (7-6), Ayo Adigun (7-1), Deng D'Awol (7-0), and Barry Mitchell (6-8). If stacked on top of each other, they stand 36 feet tall, and yet the Nighthawks finished with a losing record this season (15-17, fourth in their division). Yeah, in retrospect maybe they could have used a guard. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=245830&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Sport Of Kings]]> You know something is an excellent sport when they hold its world championships in a pub. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=167705&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[One Shining Moment... Of Pooh Sticking]]> In case you missed it on SportsCenter, today continues the 23rd annual World Pooh-Sticks Championship Race in Oxfordshire, England. The Japanese have returned to defend their title against... a lot of people with nothing better to do. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=163002&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Cold-Blooded World of Competitive Kickball]]> Our nation's courts have recently been home to some vicious legal battles about the sport of kickball. The WAKA (World Adult Kickball Association) has beef with DCKickball about... well, I have no idea what it's about. The news here is that there are adults out there who play kickball. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=158421&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Respect... The Cock.]]> First, let me apologize for neglecting all of you cockfighting fans out there for so long. I know, it hasn't been fair. But your voices have been heard, and today, we're going there. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=154306&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[There Will Be No Sheep Tackling Here, No Sir!]]> To close out this sleepy Monday, we bring you sport from the other side of the pond; more specifically, the banning of such. The BBC reports that in New Zealand — wait ... that's not really "the other side of the pond," is it?; sorry, we went to grade school in the United States and thusly know nothing about world geography — the popular practice of "sheep tackling" will no longer be tolerated. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=132844&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Presenting The Stupidest Sport Ever]]> We were pretty sure that the end of civilization was near when we discovered Korfball. After a close examination of Korfball, it became very clear that humans have too much time on their hands, and it would be better for everyone if we just gave everything back to the lower mammals, letting them start the evolution process all over again. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=130520&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Return Of Calvinball]]> Inspired by a recent post at Bleed Cubbie Blue — essentially comparing last night's Cubs game to "Calvinball" — we got to thinking about "Calvin and Hobbes, specifically "Calvinball." This item may be wholly inappropriate, off-topic, apropos of nothing ... but we don't care. It's about something pure and whimsical and good, and, well, we just sometimes don't get that feeling a lot around here, doing things like surfing Barry Bonds' Web site. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=125801&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[This Week In Weird Foreign Sports]]> We tend to find European sports terminology hilarious, mainly because it points to how equally absurd American sports terminology is. So here's a look at the big news of the week in odd, confusing sports in other lands, with our translation. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=115017&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Yep. She's Throwing A Toilet Seat]]> We're not going to comment too much here, except to say: Dude! Redneck Games photos! More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=114717&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Naked Cricket Chicks And Cricket Dudes]]> If you're the type of person who plays virtual cricket on your PlayStation2 — and, of course, you totally are — you were this close to having yourself quite a treat. The game version of Brian Lara International Cricket — we don't know who Brian Lara is either — was to feature a nude streaker based on model Lauren Pope. Programmers caught the gag at the last minute and, inexplicably, replaced the image with a male streaker. Which is a great way to sell a video game. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=114560&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Toe Rasslin'!]]> Many aspects of the World Toe Wrestling Championships, held last weekend in England, are hysterical. Here are a few: More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=114067&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[We're Not Gonna Make A Joke ... We're Not Gonna Make A Joke ...]]> Italy won the Homeless World Cup yesterday. Good for them. (Ahem.) A proud victory. (Cough.) They've done their country proud. (Er, yes.) No reason for any other comment. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=114058&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[This Week In Weird Foreign Sports]]> We tend to find European sports terminology hilarious, mainly because it points to how equally absurd American sports terminology is. We all might know what "a blooper to shallow left" means, but to anyone not intimately familiar with baseball terminology, that's just nonsensical babbling. So here's a look at the big news of the week in odd, confusing sports in other lands, with our translation. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=111839&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[John Kerry's Worst Nightmare]]> If you're hanging around East Dublin, Georgia, this weekend — and if you are, be careful of all those disputes with the Irish Republican Army — you would be remiss not to drop by the 10th annual Summer Redneck Games. (We find it infinitely amusing that the event organizers have a Tripod site. We're almost surprised it's not written in BASIC. Hey, guys: Register a domain name. It ain't that hard, honest.) More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=111323&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Cricket Star Not Well-Endowed, Kind of Chubby]]> We don't know cricket well enough to know whether someone can be accurately described as a "legend of cricket," but apparently, Shane Warne is a Legend of Cricket. He is also a Legend of Poon-Chasing.Warne, whom the British tabloids have been tracking for years, is being divorced by his wife after he was nailed for cheating on his her for the umpteenth time. This in itself is not necessarily newsworthy; athletes, we hear, are known to sleep around a bit, maybe, not sure. But the story here is pretty amazing.Apparently, Warne met Laura Sayers, a 25-year-old London financial student, in a club last week, and "propositioned" her. It didn't quite turn out as he planned.
Warne was with his county team-mate, England star Kevin Pietersen. A friend of Laura's was going out with Pietersen and she turned up to make up the numbers. Laura said she didn't even know who he was when he introduced himself in a swanky private members' bar.
She said: "My friend was dating Kevin and they invited me out. They introduced me to their friend Shane, but I don't follow cricket and had no idea who he was."The first thing he said was: 'How about a foursome?' Shane laughed but I told him off and was quite offended. I thought, who is this creep?"After moving to Umbaba nightclub and drinking until the early hours, Kevin and Laura's friend decided to go back to Kevin's London flat.Laura said: "Shane said he was going back with them and asked me to come. We were just going as a group so I went along. When we got there, Shane and I left Kevin and my friend alone. Shane made it clear he wanted to get laid. I told him I didn't want to, but he was persistent."He left me in the lounge and went into the bedroom and called out for me to join him. I walked into the bedroom but I told him I wasn't interested in having sex with him. He took off all his clothes and I asked him if he had a condom, I guessed he didn't, so I thought that would be the end of it."Laura said Shane ran out of the room and returned with a condom. She added: "When he came back I just gave in."She said Warne failed to put in a match-winning performance under the covers. She said: "He's a bit chubby, but he's quite fit. It was all over very quickly and he wasn't very well-endowed. He just wanted to get laid."Why can't this ever happen in America? We mean, honestly.Shane's Shame [London Mirror] More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=110205&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Just Asking ...]]> We're watching the Spelling Bee, and find it amusing that the head judge in a contest for children is judged by a priest. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=108982&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Come See The Silly Sports!]]> We are but a month away from The World Games. What are The World Games, you ask? They're essentially a yearly audition for the Olympics by all the goofy sports that really would like to make it to the real games. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=108937&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Mustache Is The Most Thing Normal About Them]]> We don't know whether or not this is offically classified as a "sport" or not, but SportsFilter directs us to the preliminaries of the World Beard and Mustache Championship. The real finals are in October, but the training goes on year round. (Weird soldier outfit is optional.) Interestingly enough, fifth place last year? Rebecca Lobo. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=108821&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Always Bet On Red]]> We love it when academics get bored. According to a couple of "British anthropologists," teams and athletes that wear the color red are more likely to be successful. "Across a range of sports, we find that wearing red is consistently associated with a higher probability of winning," says one of the yawning grad students. The "scientists" looked at four sports in the 2004 Olympics; this makes them the only ones. More »
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