The World Football League, the most disastrous sports league ever

How the American takeover of world football failed.

What happened behind the scenes at Europe’s top clubs as their Super League plans were pitched and ripped apart in a matter of days

1440: The National Football League

Explore the best resources we found on the NFL

The inventor of fantasy football first experimented with two other sports

In the mid-1950s, Wilfred “Bill” Winkenbach, a part-owner of the Oakland Raiders, concocted two fantasy sports games: one for Major League Baseball and one for the Professional Golfers’ Association. In 1962, he invented fantasy football alongside two writers from the Oakland Tribune.

Leagues like the Premier League differ from the World Cup

The Premier League and other similar club leagues are professional organizations like the NFL or the NBA, where owners purchase player contracts. World Cup teams, on the other hand, are organized by citizenship.

Rivalry between the AFL and NFL led to a merger—and the creation of the Super Bowl

Competition between the American Football League and the National Football League led to a 1966 merger agreement, with the Super Bowl created as a championship game to determine league supremacy before the two leagues were fully integrated.

The NFL is the most valuable sports league in the world

NFL teams are worth a total of $228B. Each team holds an average value of over $7.6B, almost as much as the NBA and MLB combined. The Dallas Cowboys, valued at $12.5B, are the most valuable sports franchise on Earth.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the game that led to the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

Explaining the rise in adult sports leagues

Community sports leagues shifted from publicly supported entities to privatized ones in the 1990s, as tech advances streamlined registration processes. Millennial interest drove significant growth in social sports leagues for adults, growing much faster than other kinds of sports. A few industry leaders have benefited from this shift.

The economics of the WNBA

The 2024 WNBA season shattered attendance and viewership records, thanks in large part to rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. The league secured a record 11-year, $2.2B media rights deal. Yet players' salaries are low compared to the NBA. This CNBC video dives into the WNBA’s business model and explores why it may take years before the longest-running women’s sports league becomes profitable.

The first Super Bowl didn't sell out—and the Packers won in a rout

Played on January 15, 1967, as the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, Super Bowl I failed to sell out the Los Angeles Coliseum as Vince Lombardi's Green Bay defeated Kansas City 35-10.

The League of Nations was the predecessor to the UN—and the US never joined

The League of Nations—established in 1920 after World War I—was the first global organization aimed at maintaining world peace. Although US President Woodrow Wilson championed its creation, the United States never joined.

Greg Norman, before LIV Golf

In 1994, Greg Norman was enjoying success as a pro golfer. But the Australian wanted to see more opportunities for global players like himself, leading him to found the World Golf Tour. Read this Sports Illustrated deep dive on Norman's failed golf league and the lesson he learned that would help him launch and become CEO of LIV Golf in 2021.

Watch ten surprising moments from the NFL Draft

The NFL Draft often delivers as much drama off the field as on it. Watch this countdown of the top 10 wow moments in Draft history, featuring infamous prospect slides, a missed pick, and surprising trades and selections.

2023's worst performing US IPOs

While an IPO is a huge milestone, it isn't always a total success in the long-term. This data visualization shows some of the worst-performing IPOs of 2023, based on their percentage returns at the end of the year, It includes an NFT gaming company and a Chinese EV battery company.

Teddy Roosevelt’s intervention helped save a brutal early version of football

In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt pressured college leaders to reform football amid public outrage over 18 player deaths. His push led to rule changes—like the forward pass—that reduced violence and ensured the sport’s survival.

The full story of WeWork, one of the most dramatic startup journeys of all time

WeWork has been through a lot since the office space company was founded as a startup in 2010. From its failed IPO in 2019, to the various leadership antics of its founder, Adam Neumann (some have claimed that he acted like a cult leader at times), to how it navigated remote work trends during the pandemic, this video tells the full story of WeWork's growth, failures, and more.

An interactive dive into the history of international women's soccer

Despite evidence it has been around just as long as men's, international support and recognition for women's soccer was long delayed for various reasons. The National Football Museum collects artifacts and oral histories on the history of soccer...

Ranking the 50 worst decisions in TV history

Most shows bomb or never even get recorded; some that do are lost to history, having failed to impress the audience or critics. This list combs through six decades of TV production history and identifies some of the worst decisions made by management in network history. Dive into the 50 worst executive decisions here, from giving the Geico cavemen a show to Geraldo Rivera's live walkthrough of Al Capone's vault.

A timeline of sports-betting scandals

This timeline examines memorable moments from three decades of sports-betting history. It breaks down key political moments, as well as some historical moments such as when the internet pushed underground bookmaking online. There are also multiple descriptions of betting scandals from 1989 on.

World War II innovations helped advance car racing

Modern American auto racing began in the 1920s with bootleggers modifying cars to outrun authorities. World War II innovations like better engines and surplus parts fueled post-war racing. By 1947, Bill France Sr. founded NASCAR, creating a unified league with consistent rules, transforming stock car racing into one of America’s favorite sports.

The Spanish flu had a major impact on the 1919 NHL season

Just two years after the National Hockey League was officially formed, its champion was playing the PCHA champion for the Stanley Cup. The series was tied, going into the deciding Game 5, when all but three NHL players fell ill with the Spanish flu. No champion was crowned that year.

Brazil is one of the World Cup's most legendary teams

After a 12-year pause for World War II, the World Cup returned in 1950 in Brazil. Brazil dominated the era, claiming titles in 1958, '62, and '70 behind teen sensation Pelé, who went from poverty to a soccer legend before turning 17.

College football bowl games boast some of sports’ most absurd names

From the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl to the Pop-Tarts Bowl, college football’s postseason is filled with quirky, sponsor-driven names.

Vince McMahon turned wrestling into a consolidated, national enterprise

In 1982, Vince McMahon purchased the World Wrestling Federation, which would later be renamed World Wrestling Entertainment, and quickly wiped out the WWE’s smaller regional promotions. By the late 1990s, he minted superstars like Chyna, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.

'SNL' spinoffs have had mixed success

As “SNL” became more popular, Lorne Michaels sensed an opportunity to turn some of the show’s most popular sketches and characters into feature films. It’s a strategy that had mixed results: “Wayne’s World” and “The Blues Brothers” are modern classics, while others, like “It’s Pat” and “The Ladies Man,” performed poorly with audiences and critics alike.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Fireworks make a loud booming sound after exploding due to air expanding faster than the speed of sound.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.