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Ten Things You Didn’t Know about Sports
Why do team sports have an odd number of players? Is bowling a sport? Why do referees exist? Whether you’re an avid sports fan or a sports hater, you should know the answers to such questions. Here they are. That’s right. Here are ten hidden rules of team sports.
1. This is the big one. Have teams of players try to put an object — usually a round one — some place the other team tries to prevent the object from being put. This is the cardinal rule of sports. It trumps all other rules. Both the place where the opposing team doesn’t want an object to go (noun) and the process of putting the roundish object in this place (verb) are usually known as a goal. Examples are “field goal” and “goal posts.” However, in sports where scoring rarely happens (e.g., soccer, hockey), it is also appropriate to use this location word as an adjective expressing extreme happiness and surprise. An example is “Goal!” stated with the same level of surprise and enthusiasm that would accompany the statement “OMG, it is snowing money!”
Incidentally, the most interesting sports usually name the sport itself directly after the object that teams are trying to put some place. Examples are baseball, football, and basketball. The less interesting sports usually do not follow this rule, probably because things like “puck” or “shuttlecock” sound more like sexual activities than sports…
