80 Sporty Facts about NFL

ESPN currently pays the NFL about $105 million dollars for the rights to air each Monday Night game. That means airing one game costs more than the budget of Minority Report ($102 million) or a whole slew of other blockbusters.

52. NFL legend Walter Payton originally didn't want to play high school football, because his brother played and he didn't want to compete with him. He only agreed to try out after receiving assurances that he wouldn't have to quit the marching band, where he was an accomplished drummer

53. Marcus Allen is the only person to ever win a Heisman Trophy, College Football National Title, NFL MVP, a Super Bowl & Super Bowl MVP

54. Tom Dempsey, a man born with a club foot (no toes) and kicked for the Saints holds the 42-year-old NFL field goal record of 63 yards.

55. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, an NFL player on the Kansas City Chiefs, continues to study medicine while still playing professional football.

Terry Bradshaw (NFL QB for the Pittsburgh Steelers) only got to start in college when the incumbent starter, Phil Robertson, decided to forgo his senior season in order to pursue other interests. Robertson would go on to create the Duck Commander Company and later star on Duck Dynasty.

57. The 1972 Miami Dolphins are the only team to win the Super Bowl with a perfect season. There's an urban legend that every season, whenever the last remaining undefeated NFL team loses its first game, all surviving members of the '72 Dolphins open bottles of champagne in celebration.

58. 52% of retired NFL players used prescription painkillers during football games, 3/4ths of that said they abused them. 63% said the pills came from a non-medical source.

59. To supplement his income while playing in the NFL, Terry Crews would paint his fellow teammates' portraits.

60. As of September 2015, 96% of NFL players had Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) based on postmortem brain studies.

The NFL stopped a $16 million study into the football and brain damage connection because they didn't approve of the doctor conducting it, despite giving an unrestricted $30 million to the NIH to fund the research

62. NFL commentator John Madden has a fear of flying and instead uses coach buses to travel the country. He once loaned his personal bus to former ice skating champion Peggy Fleming, whose flight from NYC to her home in Los Gatos, CA had been grounded after the 9/11 attacks.

63. The first African American NFL player (Kenny Washington) and the first African American MLB player (Jackie Robinson), were on the same college football team at the same time.

64. The NFL gives only about 5% of proceeds from its Breast Cancer Awareness month to charity

65. Mark Davis, the owner of the Oakland Raiders NFL team, is worth $500 million but drives a 1997 minivan and carries a 2003 dumbphone. Until recently he ate at Hooters every Tuesday night for $12.99 all-you-can-eat wings. Davis travels to southern California to get his unusual bowl haircut.

NFL official Ed Hochuli is actually a lawyer who referees football games as a side gig.

67. Former NFL quarterback Todd Marinovich left the league due to his drug problems. He didn't play football for the next eight years until he signed with the Arena Football League. He threw ten touchdowns in his first game back while withdrawing from heroin.

68. Brett Favre played for so long in the NFL that he began publicly talking about retiring in 2002, nine years before officially doing so in 2011. Favre, who entered the league in 1991, became the only active player with a grandchild in 2010.

69. Bill Belichick is the only head coach in the NFL who refuses to have his likeness and name represented in any John Madden Football game.

70. The NFL cannot host games on Fridays or Saturdays until late December as federal law prohibits professional football leagues from competing with college or high school football, which typically host games on those days.

The NFL requires football fields to be built either facing north/south or in the shade so the sun doesn't interfere with play.

72. NFL player Brian Bosworth outraged Denver Broncos fans, then sold 10,000 of them 15$ T-shirts that said "Ban the Boz", without them knowing that he was selling them.

73. David Carr admitted in 2006 of deflated footballs and the NFL did nothing.

74. In 1999, NFL player Orlando Brown was hit in the eye by an errant penalty flag and then threw the guilty referee to the ground. He missed 3 seasons due to partial blindness and sued the NFL, settling for a reported $15-20 million.

75. After Pat Tillman turned down a $3.9 million contract in the NFL to join the Army and dying in action, a fellow Ranger did the "Walk for Pat" to raise exactly that amount for his foundation