Daniel Constantine Marino Jr. is one of those quarterbacks that should be more decorated than they are. His ability to get the ball out his hands in less than a blink of an eye made him nearly unstoppable from behind center. With a laser for an arm and ability to throw the ball fifty-plus yards down the field off of the wrong leg made the fact that he was a less than adequate scrambler a non-factor. Dan Marino attended the University of Pittsburgh from 1979 to 1982 where he boosted the team's rankings within the top five throughout the four seasons he played for the Panthers. His first three seasons as a Panther, Marino led the team to a 33-3 record but unfortunately during his senior year, Marino's statistics took a drastic dip but led the team to the 1983 Cotton Bowl Classic where they lost 7-3 to Southern Methodist University. However, Marino did finish college career with 7,905 passing yards and 74 touchdowns.
After a dip in his play in his final season with the Pittsburgh Panthers, Marino was selected 27th overall in the 1983 NFL Draft by the Miami Dolphins. Despite being the last quarterback picked in the first round of the draft, Marino set several NFL records as a rookie including a 96.0 passer rating, the highest completion percentage that season with 58.45 percent, and the lowest interception percentage with 2.03%. Marino played his entire pro football career with the Dolphins leading the team to the postseason ten times, reaching the Super Bowl one time (Super Bowl XIX), and winning the NFL MVP award in 1984. By the time of his retirement in 2000, Marino had held over 40 single-season and career passing NFL records. Most of which have been broken. Dan Marino is considered the greatest quarterback of all-time to have never won a Super Bowl. Still to this day, many try to emulate his style of play on the field.
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."