Water Polo: A New Favorite (Brutal) Sport

Eat your hat, dude!

Until a couple of days ago, I had never really watched a water polo match. Now, I can't get enough of it. This is a sport of strength, aggression, power, accuracy, discipline, finesse and extraordinary conditioning. It's also brutal as hell when it's legal and dang near monstrous when it's not. Now THAT's entertainment.

I watched the U.S. and Spain play (for about a quarter at lunch) a day or so ago and was simply taken aback at how rough the women are. I can only imagine what the guys do. This one was a 9-9 tie, with Spain gallantly coming back in the last quarter to score three late goals and lock up the tie. The U.S. featured some real gorillas and their brute strength. Spain was fast, agile and accurate. It was a classic match.

Water polo makes football look like hopscotch.

The underwater cameras the TV guys have installed give you an idea just how uncompromising the defenses are. Here's a shot of a woman pulling at an opponent's bathing suit to the point of showing her tiny boob (not much titilation here, boys; stick with beach volleyball for the cheap thrills).  When they're not trying to strip off bathing suits, they're looking to drown the offensive player. They pull them down, wrestle with them, slug them, yank at their bathing suits, hold them, dunk them and occasionally get penalized. They don't seem to care about the penalties, although means they've fouled out.

I have no idea why these games don't break out in hockey-like fights about every two minutes because the word "fair" doesn't seem to enter anybody's strategy. The word "entertainment" enters mine, though. Love this game.