Then you calm down and take a shower. And everything starts to burn.

July 1, 2015 9:50 AM

Sam Borden on calcio storico, Florentine historic football

With two teams of 27 players placed in a sand pit and told, essentially, to do whatever is necessary to get a ball into the other team’s end zone, the sport is a strange mix of American football, rugby and street fighting. Watching it live, a more direct comparison might be to the children’s game Red Rover, but with punching and tattoos.

posted by frimble (19 comments total)

Just read the article. First I had heard of this sport. Never had a death, but did lose a spleen once. When you win, they pay for the post game meal so there is that.
posted by AugustWest at 10:00 AM on July 1, 2015

"Three days! Three acres! Three thousand men!"
posted by entropone at 10:05 AM on July 1, 2015 [16 favorites]

Some more photos (mostly action shots) here.
posted by inire at 10:17 AM on July 1, 2015

Another form of traditional football from Orkney: The Ba.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:25 AM on July 1, 2015

This year's final.
posted by carter at 10:32 AM on July 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

there's also a few games on YouTube, if you want some ideas of the dynamics in the sport. If you need any comparison, imagine american football where the backs walk with the ball nervously in the backfield, waiting the lines engage in a punch-out to breach gaps, and allow some of their team mates to go and engage with the second line of defense, while the defense tries to do the same, except they plan on clobbering the ball carrier.
posted by lmfsilva at 10:33 AM on July 1, 2015

I've been to a couple of games. There *are* some rules but it looks so much like total bloody mayhem, and the players are ... ahead of each game there's this cheesy but cute Renaissance-styled procession and then at the end of each of the contingents the teams and their biggest supporters and it just looks like a sanctioned prison gang. I think it was cancelled for a couple of years after riots, and now players have to have clean-ish police records to play.
posted by Capybara at 10:39 AM on July 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ha, the shin guards are a nice touch.
posted by backseatpilot at 11:08 AM on July 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

I happened to be in Florence once during the finals. I couldn't get tickets, but watching the game in a random bar is one of my best memories of Italy.

I was told it used to be played by Popes and Italian nobles.
posted by cosmic.osmo at 11:28 AM on July 1, 2015

Excuse me for using this reference for a game that "used to be played by Popes", but it sounds kinda similar to Calvinball.
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:54 AM on July 1, 2015

So it would just be the Pope against a bunch of nobles? Or is this one of those situations where they dig up previous Popes, as the Church was wont to do from time to time?
posted by Panjandrum at 12:07 PM on July 1, 2015

(self-fanning intensifies)
posted by boo_radley at 12:08 PM on July 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

From Wikipedia:

Each team has 27 players and no substitutions are allowed for injured or expelled players. The teams are made up of four Datori indietro (goalkeepers), 3 Datori innanzi (fullbacks), 5 Sconciatori (halfbacks), 15 Innanzi o Corridori (forwards).

The winning team receives a Chianina cow. Chianinas are the tallest and the heaviest breed of cattle.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:13 PM on July 1, 2015

I just saw a video of this on youtube and I gotta say, the guys in the back holding the ball look a bit scrawny for this sort of thing.
posted by freakazoid at 12:36 PM on July 1, 2015

So it would just be the Pope against a bunch of nobles? Or is this one of those situations where they dig up previous Popes, as the Church was wont to do from time to time?


Not exactly- it goes: Pope, Anti-Pope, Contra-Pope, Flying-Pope, five sub-Popes, seven Swiss Guards, Fly-Half, Scrum-Half, Silly Mid On, Silly Mid Off, five Backs, Holy Roman Emperor, Goal Keeper.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:01 PM on July 1, 2015 [8 favorites]

Strongly seconding inire's link
posted by glasseyes at 3:43 PM on July 1, 2015

I just saw a video of this on youtube and I gotta say, the guys in the back holding the ball look a bit scrawny for this sort of thing.

That gives him an incentive to run faster.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:17 PM on July 1, 2015

Was that a reference to Lucas? Tell me that was a reference to Lucas.
posted by Molesome at 1:40 PM on July 5, 2015

Panjandrum: "Or is this one of those situations where they dig up previous Popes, as the Church was wont to do from time to time?"

Jeez Louise, you dig up one pope, they never let you forget about it.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:15 AM on July 22, 2015