I’ve always agreed with the popular belief that the Super Bowl should be regularly held in San Diego or Miami, because the weather is awesome and people would enjoy it more. Along the same brilliant lines of logic, I also believe that the Summer Olympics should always be held in places like Brazil, Brazil or Brazil, because…

*whistles, points up, winks*

Unfortunately, some Debbie Downers out there not only disagree with me about locale, as the 2012 games are in London, but now they’re also firing back at the best part of women’s volleyball – bikini wedgies.

Under new rules adopted by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), players are free to wear shorts and sleeved tops. The governing body said the move was made out of respect for the cultural beliefs of some of the dozens of countries still in contention to qualify for the games.

“Many of these countries have religious and cultural requirements, so the uniform needed to be more flexible,” FIVB spokesman Richard Baker told The Associated Press on Tuesday. (Via the HuffPo)

Look, I’m a modern dude, so I’m hip to the religious and cultural importance scene. So I’m here to offer you a deal, International Volleyball Federation. For every one female athlete that covers up, one has to wear less. Like, if America’s Logan Tom wanted to, she could totally dress like this…

There are a lot of sports in the world, ranging from those that require top-shelf physical skill (marathon running, pro football against the New Orleans Saints) to sports you can sorta perform involuntarily (curling, the luge).

Apparently the “wide wide world of sports” isn’t wide enough for some people, as natives of the Malay-Thai Peninsula have combined soccer, tennis, volleyball and I’m pretty sure hacky sack to perfect the sport of sepak takraw. I’m sure some of you have seen it before and will be all, “way to be cultured, Brandon, snoot snoot”, but no, I’ve never seen this before and it feels like they should be wearing wooden helmets and performing in the background of The Lion King. I think the best part of the video is that it takes place on FASHION ISLAND.

From the Wikipedia entry for sepak takraw:

Similar games include footbag net, footvolley, football tennis, bossaball, jianzi and sipa. These similar games all involve keepie uppies.

Yeah, that clears it up. Thanks, Wikipedia. I would’ve called the keepie uppies “chazzwazzers”.

[h/t Fark Sports]

Obligatory With Leather women's volleyball image.

What started as a simple case of a pervert trying to get his freak on has turned into a life-ruining experience for one Seattle husband. Steven Meeks is facing one count of voyeurism after a girl on a high school volleyball team discovered a camera in the bathroom that her and her teammates were using during the night of a slumber party last November.

Even worse for Meeks is that his wife is the volleyball team’s coach, so I imagine she will be hiring a lawyer to bump, set and spike half of his assets in the near future. That is, unless she falls for his incredibly solid excuse.

Meeks told police that he placed the camera in the bathroom for his sexual gratification, according to probable cause documents. He said that his intentions were to spy on a female co-worker who he knew would be using the restroom on Monday, but he said he was aware of the slumber party and that the girls would be using the bathrooms.

(Via KIRO TV)

Man, this dude has got to be the biggest dipsh*t in the history of perverts. I can just picture the interrogation now:

Cop: “Let me get this straight, you scumbag – you not only set up the camera to spy on a female co-worker…”
Meeks: “Oh yeah.”
Cop: “But you also knew that a high school volleyball team would be using this bathroom, too?”
Meeks: “Oh, definitely. No doubt. So what now, do we high five?”

What you’re watching is either a volleyball match between Chinese Women Volleyball TianJin and Army or one of those Powerade commercials where they CGI the ball to make it look like Michael Vick is throwing a football out of a stadium.

This video comes to us from Reddit by way of With Leather editor emeritus Matt Ufford, who labeled his e-mail to me “holy sh*t!” and suggested moving your cursor away from the video playbar so you don’t know when the play is going to end. It’s awesome, and a great contrast to my personal volleyball memories, which are me in gym class standing still while the ball drops in front of me and then suddenly figuring out I was supposed to hit it.

Burnsy’s reaction was almost as good as the video itself:

Was that the dad from Hangover 2 not caring for their ability to win immediately?

Urban Meyer’s foxy volleyball daughter Nicki has lashed out at her own smart phone over talk that her famous father is headed to Columbus take over as head football coach at Ohio State. Nicki, who is pretty famous for platonically hugging Tim Tebow all the time, posted the following message on her Twitter.

That’s what I’m tlking abt. Rumors and conspiracy theories have been running rampant all month, and college football commentator and flatulence-free food advocate Beano Cook exasperated the speculation with a prediction of the move during an interview on ESPN radio on Thursday. Neon Deion Sanders, who is in that header picture for some reason, could not be reached for comment.

For more information about Nicki Meyer, you can check out her Twitter, her Georgia Tech volleyball bio, or you can just turn around and talk to Chris Hansen, who is standing like four feet behind you.

School police are reviewing videotapes to try to identify the woman, who witnesses said threatened to shoot several members of the visiting Kirby team, Judson ISD spokesman James Keith said.

“The Kirby team had just won, and they were in the back parking lot near the gym when the woman approached,” Keith said, noting that the students were chanting and celebrating their victory. The woman “approached them, pulled a handgun, and threatened to shoot them,” he said. –San Antonio Express News, via our own Upstate Underdog.

The media report that the small woman remains at large. Of course she’s at large. Everything’s bigger in Texas.

A Connecticut university made a decision to cut women’s volleyball in favor of a competitive cheerleading team last year. That volleyball coach and five of her players sued the school on the basis of a Title IX violation. That case has reached the U.S. District Court in the form of a class-action lawsuit, one that could set a jarring precedent for the future of women’s sports! Or not…

Linda Carpenter, a professor emerita at Brooklyn College and co-author of the book “Title IX,” said the women’s sports community is watching the case closely.

“These are significant issues and a significant case,” Carpenter said. “It provides a case, whichever way it goes, that can work its way up the judicial food chain, and ultimately provide a precedent.” –KENS 5.

Although cheerleaders at the college level do participate in rigorous national competitions, cheerleaders are not subject to NCAA regulations like, um, real athletes. And fielding a cheer team is obviously cheaper than, um, running an actual sports team. Look, I’ll give credit: those flips and herkies are serious business. If we can refer to figure skaters, gymnasts, curlers and baseball players as athletes, I can certainly give cheerleaders the same due.

HOWEVAH, as a pig-headed chauvinist, I have to admit that it’s nice to finally see a women’s team get the shaft in the face of Title IX, which is…let’s say…not one of my favorite things. The idea of equal funding for athletics along gender lines–when so many more men care about sports more than women–seems faulty to me. Where are all of these women athletes supposed to be coming from? Even after modern-day superstar lady jocks like Flo-Jo, Mia Hamm, that one tall chick with the teeth, and Marion Jones, there still aren’t as many female athletes as male. If we really want more money for women’s sports, we ought to just ban men’s lacrosse.

ASYLUM POLL: Should cheerleading be considered a sport?

Nominate this photo for Sports Image Of The Year [scratch that, it's 30 years old; the cars in the background should have been a clue]. And then call Border Patrol. It’s a volleyball game being played over the border…literally. These people are using the fence separating the border between Mexico and Arizona as the net.

Alex Webb, people playing volleyball using the border fence between Arizona and Mexico as the net, 1979. Naco, Arizona. –from Bears In Human Suits.

Pretty awesome, and somewhat disturbing, especially if that volleyball rolls into America and tries to get a job.

The blonde in this photo, whose name you can find here, once played varsity volley for Tennessee-Martin, and then eventually transferred to Ball State and played club ball there. Don Chavez found some just-barely-safe-for-work images and assembled them for the good of mankind. You can see my faves here, which are much less suggestive.

Eleven students claim they were hazed by their peers, but none sought medical treatment.

[M]any students outside the school Tuesday said it involved suggestive acts with a sex toy….Some students told KTLA they’ve heard rumors that a freshman player was held down in the locker room and sodomized with an object.

The LA Times had an update yesterday:

Six employees at Taft High School were reassigned Tuesday while school district and law enforcement officials investigate an alleged hazing incident in the boys locker room on the Woodland Hills campus…[D]istrict sources said Principal Sharon Thomas and volleyball coach Arman Mercado were among them.[...]

[They] were disciplined because they allegedly did not report the hazing in a timely manner. The incident, which only involved students, was reported to the Los Angeles Police Department on Jan. 30. But top school district officials said they were not aware of the incident until Feb. 17.

Freshmen? I guess they like ‘em older. Once a girl turns 14, she’s totally past her prime. Maybe it’s different with guys. I wouldn’t know, but then I was never as maniacally sexually frustrated at that age. In other words, I never played boys’ volleyball in high school.