Germany's Christian Schwarzer (8) jumps to score against Greece's goale Dimitrios Kaffatos during a Group B match Saturday. AP

In fact, handball-like games date back to ancient Greece. The Romans played a version of the game called "harpaston," and fangballspie (or catch ball) was featured in the songs of German poet Walther von der Vogelweide, who was as big as Celine Dion back in the 12th century.

The modern version of the sport was initially played at the end of the 19th century and first took root in Denmark, Germany and Sweden. Outdoor handball debuted in 1936 at the Berlin Olympics with Germany winning the first gold medal; indoor handball joined the Olympic family at the Munich Games in 1972. The sport is now played by 150 nations and is wildly popular among Scandinavian and Central European countries. In Denmark, for example, women handball players can earn upwards of $200,000 per year.

Of course, as far as handball goes in the Land of Michael Phelps, the fascination ends after the seventh grade. Dawn Allinger Lewis, a member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic handball team who is providing commentary for NBC, estimates that 600 people in the U.S. are currently pursuing the sport on a fulltime basis. That compares with 30,000 women who play in Denmark. Imagine if we cared. Even slightly. With its reliance on speed, agility and ball skills, the U.S. would not only excel at handball but likely dominate the sport in a matter of years.

For now, though, we're strictly an also-ran. The best Olympic finish was a fourth place by the women in 1984; the men finished sixth in 1936 and ninth in 1996. Both teams failed to qualify for the Sydney and Athens Games, and money has much to with it. No domestic league. No sponsorship dough. Allinger, who is also the vice president for women's USA Team Handball, says the annual budget for USA Team Handball is $500,000, and after administrative and competition costs, the number drops to $25,000. Alex Rodriguez makes that every two innings. Plus, people often mistake it for the handball you see in the parks or on city streets.

"You get past the name of the sport and you try to explain what the sport is -- lacrosse without the stick, water polo without the water, basketball, soccer and hockey all put into one, and it's still hard for people to visualize what it is until they can see it," says Allinger Lewis, who played professionally for two years in Norway for Team Refstad-Veitvet.

Well, they'll see plenty of it this month. NBC will air 16 matches on Bravo, MSNBC and CNBC. The gold medal game will air on NBC during the afternoon of Aug. 29, and the women's final will be seen live on CNBC on the same day. "We've gotten little snippets in past Olympic Games," says Allinger Lewis. "Maybe they showed a quick highlight or something like that. This is definitely our biggest opportunity to gain exposure, bar none."

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