- There’s a story behind every rule. Especially the weird ones.
Games have rules for a reason. They’re there to ensure fair play and that everyone starts on the same line, allowing skill and ability to determine the final result.
If you go through the rulebook of virtually any sport or game, though, you’ll soon enough start running into really bizarre rulings. Sometimes, something so rare happens that procedures for dealing with it must be written down – no matter how unlikely it is to ever occur again.
Here are 10 examples of strange and unexpected official rulings from games and sports everyone knows.
1. Volleyball: Your Hair Isn’t a Body Part
Volleyball has very strict rules about ball contact. Any small brush with the ball is counted against a team’s three allowed hits before a pass, and your body may absolutely not touch the net.
Luckily for long-haired players, your hair isn’t counted as a body part.
Volleyball’s official rules specifically state that hair isn’t a body part and may brush the ball or the net. This rule exists because it’s extremely rare for players’ hair to actually affect the game, and policing hair-ball contact would be impractical for the referees.
2. Football: You Can Score One Point
If you’re a hardcore (American) football geek, you probably knew this already. But more casual sports fans may not be aware that it is possible to score a single point in football.
The most common way is, of course, the single-point conversion. Immediately after scoring a touchdown, the team may score an extra point by kicking the ball through the uprights.
A more obscure way to score one point is the one-point safety. If the defending team commits specific fouls or the ball becomes dead in the defense’s end zone during a touchdown attempt, the offense is awarded one point. This, however, has never happened in an NFL game, so many fans simply don’t know the rule exists.
3. Baseball: Ball Caught in the Umpire’s Mask
Let’s say the batter misses the swing, the catcher fails to catch the ball, and the ball hits the umpire straight in the face, becoming embedded in his protective mask. What happens then?
Well, in this case, all runners advance one base. This is an incredibly unlikely scenario, but it must have happened at least once, because this rule is written in the official NBA rulebook.
4. Uno: No Stacking Draw Cards
Oh no! You’re playing Uno, and the player going before you just slapped down the Draw Four card! Fortunately, you have a Draw Four card as well, so you pass the penalty on.
Although this is how many families play Uno (much to the chagrin of the family member who ends up drawing the cards), this is not how it’s supposed to go. According to Uno’s actual rules, you can’t stack Draw Two or Draw Four cards.
If you get one, swallow your pride, draw the cards, and skip your turn. No passing the damage along.
5. Freestyle Swimming: You May Stand in the Pool
Standing on the bottom of the pool seems counterintuitive to competitive swimming. Indeed, it is forbidden in almost all forms of swimming – but not in freestyle.
In a freestyle swimming competition, a swimmer may stop and stand in the pool as long as they don’t attempt to walk or gain an unfair boost. This rule acknowledges that swimmers may get leg cramps or simply become so exhausted that they must stand in the pool or drown.
In this scenario, the former is infinitely preferable. That makes me wonder why freestyle is the only form of swimming that allows standing in the pool.
6. Golf: Nature May Move the Ball
You’re out on the course playing golf and just had an amazing swing. But through sheer bad luck, a strong gust of wind or an errant flying rock suddenly pushes your ball to a less favorable position.
Sucks to be you because you can’t move the ball back to where it was. Forces of nature are allowed to move the ball in golf (with very few exceptions), and you must continue play from wherever the ball comes to a stop. No matter how lousy that position is.
7. Disc Golf: No Fans
In disc golf, players are prohibited from using any form of air manipulation tactics in an attempt to affect the trajectory of a thrown disc. This means they can’t use fans, flap towels or clothing, or even blow on a disc to change its course.
Honestly, this seems like a common-sense rule. You can’t help but wonder who was so unsportsmanlike as to set up fans on a disc golf course to necessitate this rule.
8. Chess: No Excessive Cleavage
Chess has a lot of bizarre, obscure, and extremely strict rules about how you may and may not move the pieces. But perhaps the strangest rule in the game addresses the clothing the players may wear – specifically cleavage.
Under the European Chess Union rules, players may not display excessive cleavage as it’s considered distracting to the opponent. As such, shirts may not be unbuttoned below the second button.
This is a controversial rule, and many players have argued it disproportionately targets women. That said, it does apply to men, too, so immaculate pecs can’t be on display either.
9. Sumo: No Underwear
If you thought chess had strangely restrictive clothing rules, you haven’t heard of sumo. The only piece of clothing the wrestlers are allowed to wear during a match is the mawashi, the distinctive heavy loincloth.
That means they can’t wear any underwear beneath the loincloth. But what if a wrestler’s mawashi becomes loose and falls off during a match?
Well, not tying your loincloth tightly and properly is an obvious sign of disrespect for the sport and your opponent. A fallen loincloth is considered a foul so disgraceful and dishonorable that the now-naked wrestler will immediately lose the match.
10. Yu-Gi-Oh: You Can’t Stink
In addition to being a popular cartoon from yesteryear, Yu-Gi-Oh is a widely played collectible card game with official tournaments worldwide. However, it seems the players (or Duelists, as the rules call them) aren’t always on top of their hygiene game.
In fact, they’ve been so filthy that since 2025, the official Yu-Gi-Oh World Championship rules have dictated that players must be washed and groomed to an acceptable degree.
“Duelists should be showered and appropriately groomed. Neglecting to wash or put on clean clothes contributes to an unpleasant atmosphere at the event. Duelists who neglect self-care to the point that they are negatively impacting the tournament may be asked to correct the issue to continue in the event,” the rules state.
Imagine the BO that necessitated this rule.