Goat! Er, Goal...Oh, Whatever.

It's a cliche for a reason; truth really is stranger than fiction. And one place where this is especially true is the wonderful world of sports.
Before I hit the grand finale, the mother of all weird sports, here are a few choice competitions to whet your whistle, compliments of Inventorspot.com:

Wife carrying: A sport where a man carries his wife across a steeplechase-esque course, popular in Nordic countries, such as Finland. The winner usually comes away with his wife's weight in beer. Just think how much fun we could have if we introduced this sport in countries where polygamy is still legal!

Toe Wrestling: So much more hard-core than thumb-wrestling. You can't win simply by pinning your opponent's digits down. No, you must lock toes with them and throw them to the ground! Rawr!

Cheese Rolling: This must have been invented by a five-year-old. Roll a large cheese down a hill. Roll yourself down the hill. If you beat the cheese, you win. (Do you win the cheese? I can't seem to find out. And I'm interested, because I like cheese.)

And....drum roll, please...

Buzkashi: National sport of Afghanistan. The object--wrestle a calf or goat carcass from your teammates while on horseback and carry it through goal-postie type things at the opposite end of the field. The rules--well, there aren't any, really. You're not supposed to hit your opponent or use rope to trip his horse, but those rules aren't necessarily enforced. Fall off your horse? Grab someone else's. Boundaries--nah. You can use a whip to beat off the opposing team's horses and riders, too. This is also one sport which can end up being more dangerous to the spectators than the players, due to the lack of aforementioned boundaries.
Standard team sizes can range from a dozen to an angry mob.

And I thought rugby was weird.

Jacquelyn Sylvan is the author of Surviving Serendipity, a fantasy novel where damsels in distress are so last season. Click the link to buy on Amazon!