Players try out for the NFL every season. Every so often, entire teams try to join the league, and, for a variety of reasons, just don’t make the cut.

These facts could…go…all…the…WAY! We dug deep for some great historical MLB postseason facts.

Football season is here, so here’s some bizarre trivia on the subject.

Technically the team that plays closest to the BRI headquarters is the Seattle Mariners. We’re happy to report that the giveaways and promotional nights of our “home team” are probably the zaniest in the major leagues.

When you think “decades without a championship,” you probably think of the Chicago Cubs, who haven’t won a World Series in more than 100 years. That got us thinking: what city has gone the longest without a championship in all of the Big 4 sports leagues (NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL) put together? (Note: We only considered cities with teams in at least two leagues.)

In 1950, 11-year-old Tommy Johnston tried out for Little League in Corning, New York. His sister, Kathryn, wanted to try out, too—but girls were barred from Little League at the time. Undeterred, Kathryn had her mother cut off her long braids, wore some of her brother’s clothes, and told coaches her name was Tubby (taking the name from a character in Little Lulu comics).

What, you thought that the national teams playing in the world cup were just called “Brazil” or “Germany”? Nope—they’ve got nicknames just as weird as the “Raptors” or “Red Sox.”

The football season doesn’t begin for a while, but here’s a look at the massive concrete-and-steel behemoths where the magic happens.

The FIFA World Cup is the planet’s most beloved sporting event. The 2014 edition is taking place in Brazil as we speak, and tons of international companies are eager to cash in on all the excitement. Here are just a few of the kooky World Cup-related ads that have been airing around the globe in recent weeks.

Hooray for exciting, world-class soccer! Boo for vuvuzelas and overspending!

• In 2003, Brazil banned the sale and consumption of beer at soccer stadiums due to the high rate of violence and deaths during rowdy games. For the 2014 World Cup, one of the primary sponsors is Budweiser…which lead organizing body FIFA to successfully lobby the Brazilian government to rescind the ban during the World Cup.

Mansions, fancy cars, and a stake in a pro sports franchise—the spoils of wealth! Here are a few sports teams co-owned by famous people.

• Rapper Jay-Z owned only 1/15^th of 1 percent of the New Jersey Nets, but he was influential—he spearheaded the team’s move to Brooklyn and a change of a color scheme to black-and-white. In 2013, he sold off his share. The team is now co-owned by Jason Kidd, a former NBA star who led the Nets to their only NBA Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003.

Weird stuff that doesn’t happen everyday in basketball.

Only team to win 70 regular season games.

The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls finished with a record of 72-10 (and in the playoffs, they went 15-3 and won the championship).

Two football players whose careers and lives were forever altered by injury…who still got to be part of the NFL, at least symbolically.

It’s champing at the bit, not chomping at the bit. This phrase (or idiom) comes from the sport of kings: horse racing. A bit is part of the apparatus that goes in the horse’s mouth and connects to the bridle and reins so the horse can be controlled and directed by the jockey on its back. The bit fits into a toothless ridge of the horse’s mouth, so the horse never really bites the bit.

Some quick facts about the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

• In 1939, Ohio State University basketball coach Harold Olsen came up with the idea of deciding the national champion each season with a 64-team tournament. (However, the term “March Madness” wasn’t coined until 1984, by the marketing team promoting the Final Four host city of Seattle.)

Who can’t play for the World Cup this summer? Teams from non-sovereign nations, displaced peoples, dependencies, and tiny countries. They’ve got their own tournament.