Ben, Just Three Words: Mounted Goat Rugby

“When you’re riding the horse, struggling for the goat, and even after you’ve grabbed it, every moment is suspense. I love this. People love this.”

Well, there’s a sentence you don’t read every day.

Jerry Jones, opportunity is knocking loudly. And it’s bringing a headless goat, apparently:

A sport best described as “mounted goat rugby from hell” could soon be transported from northern Afghanistan’s dusty plains to the green turf of Twickenham, or even New York’s Yankee Stadium, if enthusiasts have their way.Buzkashi, a game supposedly devised by Genghis Khan, pits men and horses against each other in a ferocious struggle for possession of a headless goat. Now the director of buzkashi at Afghanistan’s Olympic committee thinks it is time to unleash this spectacle on the world.

Haji Abdul Rashid is looking for a Western partner to promote the sport overseas. “We want the people of Europe and America to see our game and learn to play it,” he said. “So we are looking for a company to help us show our game.”

Any impresario willing to underwrite a match would make a handsome return, Mr Rashid says. Ticket sales, corporate sponsorship and TV rights could generate enormous sums of money.

Although there are, at present, no obvious takers for the offer, Mr Rashid’s enthusiasm is nonetheless undimmed. “In other parts of the world they have rugby, they have bullfights,” he said.

“Buzkashi is the same – another dangerous game – so I believe people will like it. When you’re riding the horse, struggling for the goat, and even after you’ve grabbed it, every moment is suspense. I love this. People love this.”

Remember the young fop in the ascot last season on Mad Men who thought that jai-alai would be supplant baseball as America’s national pastime? He’s got nothing on this guy.