The most popular sports columnist in America puts his life (and dignity) on the line in search of the most absurd sporting event on the planet.What is the stupidest sport in the world? Not content to pontificate from the sidelines, Rick Reilly set out on a global journey8212;with stops in Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, England, and even a maximum security prison at Angola, Louisiana8212;to discover the answer to this enduring question. From the physically and mentally taxing sport of chess boxing to the psychological battlefield that is the rock-paper-scissors championship, to the underground world of illegal jart throwing, to several competitions that involve nudity, Reilly, in his valiant quest, subjected himself to both bodily danger and abject humiliation (or, in the case of ferret legging, both). These fringe sports offer their participants a chance to earn a few bucks and achieve the eternal glory that is winning8212;even when the victory in question might strike some as pointless, like the ability to sit in an oven-hot sauna for the longest time. It's debatable whether these sports push the body or just human idiocy to the outermost limits, but one thing is for sure: Sports in Hell is laugh-out-loud hilarious and will deliver plenty of unabashed fun.From the Hardcover edition.
ry explaining baseball to an alien--someone hurls a leather ball at you, and you whack it with a stick and then run in a circle while others chase after it. Sounds pretty bizarre, right? But that's nothing compared to ferret-legging (competitors vie to see who can hold a ferret in their pants the longest), ****** bicycle racing (self-explanatory), or chess boxing (adversaries alternate rounds of boxing and chess). These are just a few of the contenders for strangest sport ever that Rick Reilly uncovers in his global quest for absurd athletic endeavors. Of course, the always convivial Reilly is not content to merely observe and comment on these curious competitions, and he becomes an enthusiastic contender for the world title of rock-paper-scissors and the World Sauna Championship. However, Reilly wisely declines to participate in Bull Poker, where a group of convicted felons test their nerves by playing poker in the center of a rodeo ring, accompanied by a rampaging bull.
- Genre: Sports + Recreation
- Subgenre: Essays
- Publisher: Anchor Books
- Pages: 204
- Language: English
- Format: paperback
- Release Date: May 31, 2011
- Date Published: May 31, 2011
- Author: Rick Reilly