1. The New England Patriots were almost named the Bay State Patriots.

The Boston Patriots were football nomads in their first decade in the AFL, playing games at Fenway Park, Harvard Stadium, Braves Field and Boston College’s Alumni Stadium. But when the team moved to Foxborough in 1971, team owner Billy Sullivan wanted a new name to go with the new location. He eventually came up with the Bay State Patriots, to honor the entire region. The name lasted a month, as the NFL evidently didn’t appreciate what the initials of the team’s new name would spell. (Think about it.) From then on, it was the New England Patriots.

2. If you signed up for the Green Bay Packers season ticket waiting list today, you’d have to wait almost 1,000 years to get your tickets.

Depending on which numbers you believe, the Packs’ list has approximately 86,000 people on it. With under 100 people giving up their tickets per year, the math says it’d take 955 years to make it to the top — just in time to see Brett Favre’s next comeback.

3. Wilson, which has been the exclusive maker of NFL footballs since 1941, produces 4,000 balls per day, or one for every Eli Manning interception.

A single cowhide (which come from cows in Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska) makes 10 footballs. And there are 16 lace holes on an NFL football, but just one lace.

4. Richard Nixon once told Roone Arledge that when Frank Gifford was with the New York Giants, he would invite Nixon over to his apartment for postgame cocktail parties.

5. Only one NFL team has ever three-peated (thus disappointing Pat Riley) and never once in the Super Bowl era.

Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers of 1966-68 won three NFL championships in a row, but no team has ever pulled off the feat in the Super Bowl era.

6. Despite the misnomer that the NFL can only play Sunday, Monday and Thursday, the league has actually played games on every day of the week.

There was the infamous 2010 snow game on Tuesday night in Philadelphia, the Wednesday night season opener in 2012 that was moved to not interfere with Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, all those terrible Thursday games that are the bane of the league’s existence (Thanksgiving day excluded, of course) and a number of Friday games moved for weather or to give the league a Christmas day, Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve showcase. .

7. An NBC employee once ran on the field (maybe) to disrupt the 1958 NFC Championship game, but he had a good reason.

There’s a legend (which has mostly been verified) that an NBC employee ran onto the field during the famous 1958 NFL Championship game because a TV cable had become unplugged because of the raucous crowd while Johnny Unitas was leading the Colts on what would be the game-winning drive. Stan Rotkiewicz, a statistician, apparently ran onto the field, playing a drunk to disrupt the game and give NBC time to fix the cable. According to his biography, Johnny Unitas didn’t buy the story because he thought no one could possibly act that well.

8. The Super Bowl trophy costs $25,000.

How little money is that? That’s a little more than Ndamukong Suh is earning per minute this NFL season.

9. O.J. Simpson and Joe Namath were both in the Monday Night Football booth in 1985.

10. The oldest record in the NFL record book is one of the most famous: Ernie Nevers scored 40 points in a 1929 game, getting six touchdowns and four extra points.

11. Gale Sayers was inducted into the Hall of Fame when he was 34, that’s four years younger than Peyton Manning is now.

12. Before Michael Jordan, there was another famous Chicago flu game.

On Nov. 20, 1977, the day he broke O.J. Simpson’s record for most rushing yards in a single game, Walter Payton was battling the flu.

“I had hot and cold flashes on Wednesday and felt weak,” he said at the time. “I didn`t even think I was going to play. You put your faith in God and he`ll take care of you. I was hoping he would do so today, and he did.” He ran for 275 yards on 40 carries in a game that helped Chicago advance to the playoffs.

13. Joe Gibbs is the only coach in NFL history to average more than one playoff win in 10+ seasons of coaching.

The former Redskins coach had 17 playoff wins in his 16 years, and 17 in his first 12 with the Redskins. John Harbaugh currently has nine playoff wins in seven seasons. Both Bill Walsh and Jimmy Johnson had 10 playoff wins in 10 seasons too.

14. The University of Georgia liked the Green Bay Packers helmet logo so much that coach Vince Dooley borrowed the look for the Bulldogs’ helmets.

The UGA legend used a black “G” with a white oval for the original design, which has mostly stayed the same over the years.

15. In the modern NFL draft, there’s only been one year in which a quarterback hasn’t been selected in the first two rounds.

That came in 1988 when Tom Tupa and Chris Chandler were taken with the 68th and 76th picks, respectively. Tupa only started 13 games at quarterback, then transformed into one of the game’s top punters. Chandler later took the Atlanta Falcons to a Super Bowl.

16. Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed) played two seasons with the Oakland Raiders in the early 1970s.

Then he ended his NFL career to become heavyweight champion of the world, beating Rocky Balboa, losing to Rocky Balboa, running on the beach in high socks with Rocky Balboa, helping Rocky Balboa beat Clubber Lang and then, sadly losing his life to Ivan Drago in Las Vegas.

17. Fred Dryer is the only player with two safeties in one game.

Those two safeties, from the man who later became Hunter, were good enough to rank him tied for No. 22 on the all-time list. The record for most career safeties is four, held by three players, including Jared Allen.

18. The total audience for the first televised football game in 1939 was 500, about 112,200,500 less than watched last year’s Super Bowl.

(Thanks to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Mental Floss and Michael MacCambridge’s America’s Game — which is a must read for any football — for many of these facts.)