Many might recognize the name and face of Phil Simms for his color commentary as a CBS sportscaster. What many forget is that Simms had one hell of a football career that lasted an entire decade and a half. While he wasn't known for exactly blowing his competition out of the water with insane stats, Simms would make the right decisions to help his team get in the perfect positions to win football games. Simms played his college football at the Division II Morehead State University. The Morehead State Eagles were known for their ball control offense that didn't necessarily allow Simms to thrive in the pocket or take many risks delivering the ball through the air. Throughout his entire college career, the Eagles failed to make the postseason.
Despite a rather unfulfilling college football career, Phil Simms was drafted 7th overall in the 1979 NFL Draft by the New York Giants where he would play his entire professional football career. As a rookie, Simms won his first five games as a starting quarterback. Unfortunately, the first seven seasons of his NFL career was plagued with injuries and mediocre play which made Giants' fans and the organization question their decision to draft the QB so high. Fortunately, in 1987 things turned around for Simms and the Giants as he held them to a 39-20 victory over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXI. In that game, Simms won Super Bowl MVP honors after throwing 22 completions out of 25 (88%) making his performance the highest completion percentage in a Super Bowl to date. Simms led the Giants to another championship in Super Bowl XXV before retiring after the 1993 NFL season.
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."