5 Real Sports So Brutal You’ll Think We Made Them Up

1. The Mayans Played a Ball Game Where the Winning Captain Was Sacrificed

Contrary to popular myth, most evidence suggests it was actually the winning captain who got the honor of being decapitated . The game symbolized the battle between life and death, with ball courts representing the entrance to the underworld . At sites like Chichen Itza, carvings show victorious players holding the decapitated heads of opponents, with blood spewing from their necks in the form of snakes.