The Strangest and Most Little-Known Facts About the NFL

The National Football League, NFL, has easily become synonymous with all things American. Alongside good ol’ barbeque and some football, it looks like you have the all-around classic red, white, and blue Sunday. Who doesn’t love some good action-packed football, comfort food, and a good time? Get out your helmets because it’s sure to be a wild ride.

As things are now, the best players of college football, the rising stars, join the ranks of the professionals after their third school year, and stand-out sophomores can also be among early picks. This was a totally different story before 1990 because to have draft eligibility meant you needed to meet the four-year college minimum requirement. This amendment to the rules gave us Archie Griffin’s win of back-to-back Heisman trophies and numerous dynasties.

The first player to catch a pass from Brett Favre was no other than himself. Is there anything more impressive?

In NFL history the only other player besides Favre to catch a pass after 40, can you guess?

The team that holds the NFL record for the most victories in the Super Bowl is Pittsburgh with 6 victories.

Can you imagine the New England Patriots as any other name besides that one?

The ball of the game has become synonymous with the look and feel of the game but what if it was entirely different than the ball we know and love?

Williams is a football executive and former quarterback and coach. He does it all. He is best known for his time with the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XXII against the Denver Broncos.

As of today, no host team has ever played in the Super Bowl.

In 1987, there was a huge strike in the NFL. The players decided to go on picket lines and since it was during NFL season, the league decided to call in “replacements” for the players.

The last NFL player to play on both sides of the ball during every play was Chuck Bednarik.

During the year 1920, Fritz Pollard of the Akron Pros and Bobby Marshall of the Rock Island Independents were the first African-American players to play in the league.

Would you imagine any player achieving 7.0 sacks in one NFL game? That honor goes to Derrick Thomas in a 1990 game against the Seattle Seahawks. The player on the receiving end was the quarterback, Dave Krieg.

Despite winning the 2021 Super Bowl with Tom Brady after beating the Kansas City Chiefs, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hold another record. The team leads the teams with the longest losing streak, with 26 games in a row. This unfortunate record was set from 1976 to 1977.

Each of the 32 NFL teams has exciting stories about how their names came to be. However, none seem to be more jaw-breaking than the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle Professional Football Inc. threw the naming privilege to the public when it asked its fans for suggestions in 1975.

Would you imagine waiting 100 years to get your season ticket? The Green Bay Packers will most likely fulfill such a fate, as they have one of the most extended lists for season tickets. In 2019, the list had about 137,000 people on it.

Getting a road win is challenging enough in the NFL; talk less of getting consecutive wins across two seasons. The San Francisco 49ers were on top of the world when they pulled 18 straight road wins in the 1988 and 1989 seasons. Two consecutive Super Bowl wins in 1989 and 1990 followed this strong feat.

What we know as helmets today didn’t become mainstream and compulsory in the NFL until the 1940s. The players before 1943 used moleskin protection on their heads. Then, the NFL introduced the plastic helmet in 1943 to offer better protection and made it compulsory.

The modern NFL age has witnessed high-flying offenses, with eleven players surpassing the 4,000-yard distance in the 2014 season. However, the Chicago Bears have yet to achieve this feat. The closest they’ve been came from Cutler in 2014 and Erik Kramer in 1995.

How hard can it be to beat a team in the NFL? The New York Jets have yet to deliver a win against the Philadelphia Eagles despite meeting the team 12 times. In addition, the Philadelphia Eagles have not drawn any matches in their encounter, winning all 12 games.

Gale Sayers may have only played seven seasons for the Kansas Comets from 1965 to 1971. However, his electrifying performance with the ball on the field earned him a Hall of Fame award in 1977. Injuries were his biggest bane, stopping him from continuing with his impressive performance.

You might appreciate the NFL’s unbreakable relationship with Thanksgiving Day, but that wasn’t always the case. NFL games were not played on Thanksgiving Day before 1934, until the Detroit Lions came along. The team hosted a game on the iconic day and has played on all Thanksgiving days except during World War II.

The Green Bay Packers have remained the only publicly owned franchise in the NFL since 1973. This community ownership model has some striking conditions that will blow your mind. First, the profits are reinvested in the team or sent to charity.

The Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins certainly did not envisage a game that would turn into an endurance test. Both teams met on 1971 Christmas Day, moving to play the longest match in NFL history. They battled it out on the field for 82 minutes and 40 seconds.

Some teams may retire numbers in honor of their players, but not all teams in the NFL share this thought. The Dallas Cowboys and the Oakland Raiders have maintained their players’ numbers, breaking this age-long tradition. However, their reason for not believing in such honor differs from the Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans, and Jacksonville Jaguars.

The once-proud owners of the upscale department store also had their hands on the Seattle Seahawks. It wasn’t until 1988 that real estate developer Ken Behring bought the majority shares of the team. He later appointed the former head coach for the Los Angeles Raiders, Tom Flores, as the new president.

While the players celebrate their Super Bowl victory, the celebration passes on to everyone in the club. The staff, coaches, executives, and practice squad members will go home with the iconic Super Bowl ring. However, those on the practice squad receive rings with a lesser value compared to the players who played the match.

The 2023 Super Bowl broke several records as the most-watched match in Super Bowl history (115 million viewers). It also became the most popular TV show in history. Since 2010, the championship has amassed an average of over 106 million viewers.

Before 2021, no NFL team had the privilege of facing its opponents on home turf for the Super Bowl. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers broke that record with Tom Brady and also won the match. This decision was the first of many.

You may not see it now, but the NFL once had a “third place” award match that featured runners-up from each NFL conference. This practice lasted for ten years from 1961, as it did not receive much accolades from players and fans. You can call it a loser’s bracket.

The NFL has 32 teams across two conferences. However, only six teams have scored above 60 points in a match since the merger. The current record stands at 62 points, set and shared by five modern squads since 1970.

What we know as the celebrated NFL today began in a car dealership in 1920. Several Professional American Football franchises held the meeting that would eventually birth the NFL at Ralph Hay’s Hupmobile auto showroom in Canton, Ohio. We are glad this meeting was held when it did, as it merged the franchises into a much stronger one.

Someone always attaches a name to something before it catches on and becomes famous. There wasn’t a worldwide search for the iconic “Super Bowl” name. Instead, the founder of the American Football League and the owner of the Kansas Chiefs, Lamar Hunt, got inspiration from a toy.