Florida is notorious for cranking out some of the most talented football players to walk the earth. And honestly, this was the hardest choice to pick. We have Deion Sanders who is one of the only athletes to hit a home run in the MLB and score a touch down in the NFL in the same week, then we have Deacon Jones who is responsible for the invention of the phrase 'sacking the quarterback,' and lastly we have Emmitt Smith who leads the NFL All-Time Rushing Yards list. There is no wrong answer between the three but we'd like to call this a toss-up between Sanders and Smith, with Smith edging the lead over Deion.
The Pensacola-bred running back set multiple rushing records as a member of the Florida Gators and kept that same energy as he entered the professional level of football. After being picked 17th overall in the 1990 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys he instantly impacted the team. He helped the Cowboys earn three Super Bowl Championships (1992, 1993, 1995), was Super Bowl MVP in 1993, an 8x NFL Pro Bowler, and so much more. Smith currently holds the NFL Rushing Yards record with 18,355 total yards ahead of legends Walter Peyton and Barry Sanders. He's also got a song named after him by The Migos. Now, that's a real accolade.
When we think of inventors, the image that comes to mind is usually that of a frazzled scientist toiling away in a lab, not celebrities pulled from the pages of Us Weekly. However, a number of well-known public figures hold patents for various innovations. Some are related to the work that made them famous, while others are offshoots of hobbies or just a single great idea.
Part of guitar wizard Eddie Van Halen's signature sound was his two-handed tapping technique, but letting all ten fingers fly while simultaneously holding up the guitar's neck could get a bit tricky. Van Halen came up with a novel way to get around this problem, though; he invented a support (top) that could flip out of the back of his axe's body to raise and stabilize the fretboard so he could tap out searing songs like "Eruption." While Van Halen was obviously interested in improving his guitar work, the patent application he filed in 1985 notes that the device would work with any stringed instrument. Want to tap out a scorching mandolin solo? Find someone selling Eddie's device.
It’s probably not surprising that James Cameron—who designed a submersible to take him to the deepest known part of the ocean—will often invent technology to make his films if what he needs doesn’t exist. He holds a number of patents, including US Patent No. 4996938, “apparatus for propelling a user in an underwater environment,” that he and his brother, Michael, created to film The Abyss and patented in 1989. The device is basically an underwater dolly equipped with propellers that makes it easy for a camera operator to maneuver in the water—and allowed Cameron to capture the shots he wanted for the 1989 film, part of which was filmed in an abandoned nuclear reactor.
In 1987 Jamie Lee Curtis designed and patented a disposable diaper that included a waterproof pocket that held baby wipes. She hasn't profited from her idea yet, though, since she refuses to license the patent until diaper companies make biodegradable products.
You know him as a rock legend, but Neil Young also loves trains—so much that he owns a stake in a model train manufacturing company and has an extensive collection. He also holds seven patents related to model trains, including Patent No. US5441223, "Model train controller using electromagnetic field between track and ground."