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To the many cultures of Mesoamerica – which includes the Olmecs, Maya, Toltecs, Aztecs, and others – a sport known today as “the ballgame” played an important role in their daily lives. From el Salvador to the American southwest, remnants of ball courts where different versions of the ballgame were played are a visual testament to the ubiquitous nature of the ballgame in Pre-Columbian North America. For more than 2,000 years the ballgame was played and there are a plethora of primary sources that relate many of its details, which include the following: extant stone ball courts in Mexico, Mesoamerican artistic depictions of the game, and Spanish accounts.

As mentioned above, in the Postclassic Period, the ballgame became a much more violent affair. The Aztecs sacrificed more humans than any other Mesoamerican culture and they apparently used the ballgame as a potential source, or medium, for human sacrifice. Captured enemies could be held, starved for a number of days, and then sent to play against well-nourished, professional ballgame players, who no doubt would win. The losers would then be sacrificed in elaborate rituals. <ref> Popson, p. 46</ref>

Although the Mesoamerican ballgame appears to have been primarily religious in nature, it was still a public sporting event. Examples from central Mexican codices in the Late Postclassic Period and seventeenth century Spanish accounts paint vivid pictures of ballgames being all day events. The festivities would include singing, dancing, mock warfare, and feasting as well as the actual ballgames. <ref> Fox et. al., p. 493</ref> According to these sources, the ballgame was the central event in a lively public spectacle that was very much like the blood sports of ancient Rome.

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