Editorial

Brits Wallop Each Other In 800-Year-Old Medieval Ball Game, And I Absolutely Want To Get In There And Mix It Up

BLOG
The 824th edition of a Shrove Tuesday contest of the Atherstone Ball Game was held in Warwickshire, England, and it's truly a legendary game. [X/Screenshot/Public — @Urban_Pictures]

[X/Screenshot/Public — @Urban_Pictures]

Andrew Powell Sports and Entertainment Blogger
Font Size:

I feel like true red-blooded Americans would be good at this game …

Have you ever heard of the Atherstone Ball Game?

Yeah, neither have I, until today.

The 824th edition of a Shrove Tuesday game was held in Warwickshire, England, and the footage is absolutely incredible … so incredible that it’ll have you like, “where do I sign up?” (RELATED: An Idiotic Genius Pulls Off One Of The Most Incredible Moves You’ll Ever See During Bathroom Fight)

Apparently, the Atherstone Ball Game is one of the oldest sports to exist and has been played on an annual basis for centuries now. The game features hundreds of people going after a heavy ugly-looking brown ball, but that’s whatever, the real beauty of this “sport” is the fact that people can literally just beat the hell out of each other in the streets while they grapple.

In fact, things got so crazy in the 2023 edition that the amount of injuries led police to issue a safety warning for this year.

The guy who won the 2024 Atherstone Ball Game is some lad named Alex Young — what a legend.

WATCH:

I need to play this game one day, just for the sole reason of being able to clock random people and get away with it, and honestly, it sounds like a sport we Americans would dominate.

Be lucky we don’t play this, British, because we’d have your ass if we did.