Being from the Midwest, I had no familiarity with water polo until I was a teenager. It was then that I stumbled across a match on television and watched with great interest for a little while.

Until I noticed something kind of important.

"Wait a minute," I asked my father. "They can't touch the bottom?"

Nope. Which makes water polo an amazingly physical game of endurance, strength, strategy and above all else, survival.

It's so-far-so-good for the United States in the Beijing Olympics. The U.S. women beat China in its opener, 12-11, which included a goal by superstar Brenda Villa , who's looking for her first gold medal in her third Olympic try.

The men are doing fine, too. With knowledge that the pool is deep, I watched with great respect as the Americans beat China, 8-4, over the weekend before beating Italy, 12-11, to improve to 2-0.

Hey, I'm all for trying new things. Water polo seems like a great sport. But knowing that the floor is 12 feet down, knowing that your opponent is kicking you and draping you under the water for the sake of victory, and knowing that we humans don't have gills, I'll probably enjoy water polo as a spectator sport. And I won't feel bad about it.

Here's a great goal from the 2000 Sydney Olympics: