To be fair, sacrificing the losing team also made it look bad in the Spaniards’ eyes. (Not that they had a problem with murdering people per se, but just that for them, losing a game just wasn’t one of the circumstances in which it was acceptable to murder people, religious aspects aside.)
Also, I have to say, the president of the Mesoamerican Ballgame Association has the coolest look - she’s totally punk af. I’m now imagining an alternate history where the punk/new-wave movement had been centered around Mexico rather than the UK, so instead of Siouxsie Sioux and Adam Ant, we had people who looked like her.
Although traditionally it was also supposedly bounced off elbows, legs and heads. I suspect injuries were common.
Yeah, I think it’s a speculative reconstruction.
