Absolutely, bring it on, via The Independent:
A sport best described as “mounted goat rugby from hell” could soon be transported from northern Afghanistan’s dusty plains to the green turf of Twickenham, or even New York’s Yankee Stadium, if enthusiasts have their way.
Buzkashi, a game supposedly devised by Genghis Khan, pits men and horses against each other in a ferocious struggle for possession of a headless goat. Now the director of buzkashi at Afghanistan’s Olympic committee thinks it is time to unleash this spectacle on the world.
Unfortunately, we’d probably mess it up with our Western imperialist political correctness which disrespects native cultural rituals:
How easy it will be to export buzkashi to countries with vocal animal rights lobbies is something Mr Rashid is grudgingly aware off. A previous experiment to stage a match in the US foundered when his American partners began introducing changes to make the game more palatable.
According to Mr Rashid, the Americans training as chapandazan said: “We should not have a real goat, we need a false one.” They said there should be no whips because that was cruel. The problem was “then it was not the real game”, Mr Rashid sighed.
I’d pay a lot to see Obama throw out the first headless goat carcass, while wearing his Chicago White Sox cap, of course.
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Comments
Best story I've read today, udders…I mean, hands down!
No whips and a fake goat…can Wilson or Spalding make the fake goats? Is that similar to the debate of aluminum vs. wood bats?
This would make for GREAT TV. One of the problems with hockey and television has always been trying to follow the puck; it's not easy to pick it up at home. But a headless goat, fake or not, shouldn't be that difficult to pick out. Could also make the goat or pseudo-goat a nice vibrant color.
I agree, it should be in the Olympics…a damn sight more entertaining than many Olympic sports. Plus, then we could have the PETA 10,000 meters…make it the distance the PETA demonstrators would have to run when being chased away from the buzkashi stadium by cops. And, they're off!
I do wonder what kind of sports little Obama would have played as a child in Indonesia or Kenya? Oh wait, did I say something wrong?
I actually heard of this before. my understanding is that we actually play a version of the sport in the west. we call it polo. i mean, no sh– we got the idea from this crazy game.
At least that is my understanding. I remember jon stewart had a bit on this, with the tag line, "is there anything in this country that is not horrifying?" or something like that.
At least the goat is already dead.
People in a modern, Western, civilized, sophisticated country like Spain enjoy as sport watching a guy dress up in tights with a very fashionable matching cape shove swords into a bull until it dies.
I understand that it's one of Obama's favorite sports. Evidently growing up in Hawaii he followed the Kandahar Hotspurs, but had to change to the Ghazni Mud Hens when he became a south side kid, since as everyone knows Ghazni plays 'em some honest blue-collar buzkashi, unlike those effete metrosexuals down in Kandahar. Just don't ask him to name his favorite rider.
maggot
That reminds me. I better tell my wife to take out steak for us tonight.
It isn't dinner if it doesn't have parents.
OK so where is the goat head? Is it the prize for the winner? I'm always concerned when a head is MIA such as the head of this country. He is like a ground hog – he keeps popping up all over the world. Will someone please slip a chip in his jacket so we can track him? I wouldn't worry about Barack mounting a horse to play this anytime soon. He looked a little uncomfortable on his bicycle this summer.