In 2014, 45 of the 50 highest-viewed TV broadcasts in the U.S. were football games. The NFL earns well over $9 billion per year, and more Americans follow football than follow MLB, NBA, and NASCAR combined.

After the 1066 Battle of Hastings, King Harold II was able to be identified by his tattoos.

There are four types of tears in humans: continuous or basal tears, reflex tears, induced tears, and psychogenic tears or tears of emotion.

The average U.S. commuter spends 42 hours each year sitting in traffic jams.

Nolan Ryan’s record-holding 5,714-strikeout career is attributable to pickles – at least, according to the 1968 New York Times. Sportswriter Joseph Durso named pickle brine “the New York Mets’ secret weapon.” Trainer Gus Mauch used it to cure the team’s youthful pitching staff’s “very tender hands.”

This article appears in September 4 • 2015.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US