It's amazing how crazy people get about sports these days, especially considering how much sports suck compared to what they used to be.
No, we're not talking about the 1940s when football players wore leather helmets. We're talking about the ancient sports where Viking rape was a trophy and "crocodile death" had its own slot on the scoreboard.
# PitzAlso known as the Mesoamerican Ballgame, this sport dates back to 1400 BCE. It was played by the pre- Columbian inhabitants of Ancient Mesoamerican. The game is said to be similar to that of Racquetball.The sport was brutal as it inflicted serious injuries on the players, that left them perpetually bruised or even dead. Thesport also had ritals aspects which required the human sacrifice of the losing team and the decapitation of its members, particularly the captain.
# VenatioVenatio was a type of entertainment in Roman amphitheaters involving the hunting and killing of wild animals. Exotic wild beasts from the far reaches of the Roman Empire were brought to Rome and hunts were held in the morning prior to the afternoon main event of gladiatorial duels. The hunts were held in the Roman Forum, the Saepta, and in the Circus Maximus, though none of these venues offered protection to the crowd from the wild animals on display. Special precautions were taken to prevent the animals from escaping these venues, such as the erection of barriers and the digging of ditches. Very few animals survived these hunts though they did sometimes defeat the "bestiarius", or hunter of wild beast. Thousands of wild animals would be slaughtered in one day. During the inauguration of the Colosseum over 9,000 animals were killed.
# Cretan Bull LeapingBull-leaping is a motif of Middle Bronze Age figurative art, notably of Minoan Crete, but also found in Hittite Anatolia, the Levant, Bactria and the Indus Valley. It is often interpreted as a depiction of a ritual performed in connection with bull worship. This ritual consists of an acrobatic leap over a bull; when the leaper grasps the bull's horns, the bull will violently jerk his neck upwards giving the leaper the momentum necessary to perform somersaults and other acrobatic tricks or stunts.
# PankrationPankration, which literary means 'all force', is a combination of wrestling and boxing. It was a dangerous sport, in which everything was permitted except biting, gouging (stabbing with your finger in your opponent’s eye, nose or mouth) and attacking the genitals. Just as in the other combat sports, umpires stood ready to punish offenders. All holds from wrestling and all blows from boxing could be used. The danger of getting wounded was nevertheless smaller than with boxing, because pankratiasts normally didn’t wear hard gloves.