96+1 Super Facts About NFL Teams
September 5, 2018
Here are some interesting facts about professional American Football teams that you may know, not know or might have forgotten:
- The Seahawks “play” with 12 players, the 12th player being the fans. “12th man” as their fans are called have set two Guinness World Records for the loudest crowd noise.
- “Seattle Running Salmon” was once considered when choosing the team’s name.
- Rapper Macklemore is a fan.
- In 1849, the California Gold Rush immigration was at its peak. The prospectors were called “forty-niners.” The team is named after them.
- The San Francisco 49ers are headquartered in Santa Clara and not San Francisco.
- Actress Hayden Panettiere is a fan.
- The Los Angeles Rams are named after Fordham Rams of the Fordham University.
- The Rams are the only professional football team that has won three League Championships while being based in three different cities.
- Actor and comedian Ty Burrell is a fan.
- The team was established in 1898, which makes it the oldest continuously run professional football team in the US.
- The team currently holds the record for the longest active championship drought.
- Country singer Blake Shelton is a fan.
- “Skol, Vikings” is the team’s fight song. The word Skol in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian languages means salute or a toast to a well-liked person or group. It also means good health or cheers.
- During football season, Vikings’ fans, especially on Sundays, can be seen walking around the streets of Minnesota wearing Vikings horns.
- Prince, one of the biggest fans, wrote his song “Purple and Gold’ for the Vikings. The Vikings’ uniform is of purple, gold and white colors.
- The team is named after the Indian Packing Company.
- Lambeau Field, the home of the Green Bay Packers, has been sold out for all home games since 1960.
- Rapper Lil Wayne is a fan.
- The team’s fight song is Gridiron Heroes. The song is named after its singer, Theo ‘Gridiron’ Spight.
- The Lions are the only NFC team to have never played in the Super Bowl Championship.
- Singer Kid Rock is a fan.
- The first ever indoor NFL game was played between the Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans (presently called the Detroit Lions). The game was played in 1932 due to extreme cold weather in Chicago.
- The Bears hold the record for most Pro Football Hall of Fame players and most retired jersey numbers.
- Actor Vince Vaughn is a fan.
- The team is named after a mythical pirate named Jose Gaspar.
- It took the team 25 years to return a kickoff for a touchdown.
- Basketball sportscaster Dick Vitale is a fan.
- If football teams had religion, the New Orleans Saints would be Catholics. The team is named after All Saints Day and their fight song is titled “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
- Their home stadium is called the Superdome where each seat is of different color than the one next to it, creating the illusion that the stadium is fuller than it is. It is also the largest fixed domed structure in the world.
- Actor Brad Pitt is a fan.
- Names like Cougars, Rhinos and Cobras were considered before the owner settled down with Panthers since his son liked big, black cats.
- If you tilt your head and squint, you’ll see the team’s logo loosely representing the outline of South and North Carolina.
- Basketball player Stephen Curry is a fan.
- For its first 15 seasons, the team used an actual falcon as its mascot. At the time, the team played its home games at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, which didn’t have a roof. In 1966, the mascot flew away only to be recaptured later.
- Before the Falcons played the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI, one Falcons’ fan banned the sale of Sam Adams beer at his gas station.
- Actor Samuel L. Jackson is a fan.
- Out of the last 19 US presidential elections, the incumbent party candidate won 17 times whenever the Redskins won their last home game prior to the Election Day. This is called the Redskins Rule.
- The Redskins are the 10th most valuable sports franchise in the world, valued at approximately $3.1 billion.
- Professional stock car racing driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a fan.
- President John F. Kennedy and his brothers Robert and Ted thought of buying the franchise in 1962.
- The Philadelphia Eagles are the only team in the league with the left-facing logo.
- Actor Bradley Cooper is a fan.
- The Giants won their December 9, 1934, game against the Chicago Bears by wearing basketball sneakers. Their coach Steve Owen made the decision to switch from cleats to basketball sneakers for better traction on the frozen Polo Grounds in New York.
- They have never lost an NFC Championship game.
- Actor Daniel Radcliffe is a fan.
- The Cowboys are the only team in the league to have registered 20 straight winning seasons.
- In 2015, the franchise was valued at $4 billion, making it the most valuable sports team in the world.
- Basketball player LeBron James is a fan.
- Due to Oakland’s blue-collar status with a large working-class population (the fact that it neighbors the affluent city of San Francisco), the Oakland Raiders are often associated with West coast gangsta rap.
- Apollo Creed of Rocky film series (his real name is Carl Weathers) played for this team before his Hollywood career took off.
- Rapper Ice Cube is a fan.
- The team’s fight song “San Diego Super Chargers” has a disco sound. It was recorded in 1979 and was later replaced with a non-disco cover version in 1989. The original version was revived in 2002.
- The team’s original owner was Barron Hilton, grandfather of Paris Hilton.
- Rapper Nick Cannon is a fan.
- In September 2014, Chiefs’ fans created 142.2 decibels of noise at a game, which is the world record for the loudest NFL stadium.
- At the end of the national anthem, Chiefs’ fans yell out “CHIEFS!” instead of “brave” as the last word.
- Actor Paul Rudd is a fan.
- The Broncos Stadium at Mile High is actually situated a mile above sea level where the ball goes 10 percent farther as compared to kickoffs in other stadiums.
- Late actor Robin Williams was the first male cheerleader of the Denver Broncos.
- Ski racer Lindsey Vonn is a fan.
- Greek history, mythology and the Tennessee Titans are inextricably tied. Origins of the “Titans” are Memphis and Greece. The Titans were 12 children of the gods Ge and Uranus. The franchise is based in Nashville, which is called the “Athens of the South.”
- Of the five Tennessee Titans’ head coaches, three had the first name Mike.
- Country singer Tim McGraw is a fan.
- Based on a formula, a marketing professor at Emory University has declared the Jaguars’ fans as one of the worst fan bases in the NFL.
- The team’s owner Shahid Khan was born in Pakistan.
- Actor Bill Murray is a fan.
- During regular season of 2017, some Colts players protested against social injustices in the society during the playing of the US national anthem. This happened during games three, four, five and six. The way the players protested was different in each of these games.
- Colts’ quarterback Andrew Luck grew up in Europe and is a big soccer fan. He roots for the Houston Dynamo soccer club.
- TV personality David Letterman is a fan.
- It is the youngest franchise in the National Football League (NFL).
- The team’s initial theme song was “It’s Football Time In Houston.” Now it is “God Blessed Texas.”
- The entire Bush Family is a fan.
- The Steelers have won the most Super Bowl Championships.
- Star-like shapes on the team’s logo aren’t stars, but three hypocycloids used by the American Steel and Iron Institute. The logo essentially pays homage to Pittsburgh’s steel industry.
- Rapper Wiz Khalifa is a fan.
- It’s the only team in the league with no logo on their helmets.
- They currently hold the longest active playoff drought in the league.
- Actor Drew Carey is a fan.
- Laura Vikmanis, the oldest cheerleader in the league’s history, was part of the Cincinnati Ben-Gals, the team’s official cheerleading squad.
- Zone blitz, a defensive tactic, was created by the Bengals’ defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau.
- Actor George Clooney is a fan.
- The team is named after Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven.” Poe was a Baltimore native.
- The Ravens are the only team in the league with a perfect record in multiple Thanksgiving Day and Super Bowl appearances.
- Decorated Olympian Michael Phelps is a fan.
- The New York Jets are not based in New York but in the neighboring state of New Jersey.
- The team’s cheerleading squad is called the Jets Flight Crew.
- Actor Adam Sandler is a fan.
- The franchise has been rechristened multiple times. They were once about to be named The Bay State Patriots, but then fans pointed out the abbreviation would be “The B.S. Patriots.”
- Tom Brady may be on his way to becoming a Hall of Famer, but at the University of Michigan he played as the seventh-string quarterback.
- Actor Mark Wahlberg is a fan.
- Don Shula, the most successful head coach in football history, coached the franchise from 1970 to 1995, taking the Dolphins to two Super Bowl Championship games and winning them.
- The franchise offers tickets on discounted rates to first responders and military personnel.
- Actor Johnny Depp is a fan.
- Actor Dean Cain signed up as a free agent with the Buffalo Bills after graduating from Princeton University where he played football.
- The Bills are the only NFL team to have lost four Super Bowl Championships consecutively.
- Actor Chad Michael Murray is a fan.
- Fact no. 97 – And here’s a going away fact about football itself – American Football was originally played with players’ feet and hence the name F-O-O-T- ball.
