When any franchise is willing to shell out tens to hundreds of millions of dollars to any particular athlete, it's usually for all the right reasons. We've seen some of the greatest athletes of all-time get their payday and we've seen some others that weren't so deserving. Now, we're here to breakdown the highest-paid NFL players of all-time. Check out the list below. Do you think these athletes are worth every penny?
The United States of America is home to the most entertainment-based billion-dollar industries on the planet. From the film industry to sports franchises, the masses just want to be entertained and root for their favorite constructs and entities. One of those constructs just so happens to be the highly-popularized National Football League.
The NFL is currently ranked first in the world amongst professional sports leagues in revenue earnings bringing in approximately $15.56 billion as a collective and approximately $396.1 million per team in 2017. With this type of cash flowing in year after year, the NFL has the spending power to pay the best athletes in the world for their services.
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."