February in Sports: By the Numbers

Here’s a look at the numbers behind some of the biggest sports stories this past month. Send us suggestions for next month’s edition by tweeting at @michaelkruse with the hashtag #GrantlandStats.


Estimated number of chicken wings eaten in America on Super Bowl Sunday: 1.25 billion.

Average current weight of an NFL player: 248 pounds.

Percentage by which that number has grown since 1985: 10.

Percentage of 513 former NFL players in one study done in 2011 by researchers at Loyola University of Chicago who scored poorly enough on a test for Alzheimer’s symptoms to indicate dementia: 35.

The amount of Gs experienced by a soccer player heading a ball: about 20.

The amount of Gs experienced in the worst hit Purdue University researchers recorded in a two-year study on high school football players: almost 300.

Number of people who watched this year’s Super Bowl: 111.3 million.

Projected amount of money bet on this year’s Super Bowl: $10 billion.

Number of workers NBC used for its Super Bowl telecast:475.

Average price of a ticket to the Super Bowl this year: $3,985.

Average price of a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl: $3.5 million.

The most expensive 30-second ad: $4 million.

Multiple by which that’s gone up since Super Bowl I in 1967: 100.

The cost of a room for one night at the budget Best Inn in Indianapolis on the weekend of this year’s Super Bowl: $898.99.

The cost of the same room the next weekend: $55.

Percentage by which the number of sports talk radio stations in America has grown since 2002: 64.

Percentage by which the TV ratings for NBA games on ESPN through Feb. 12 were up compared to last year: 27.

Percentage by which the New York Knicks’ TV ratings went up in the first week and a half of Jeremy Lin starting at point guard: 70.

Lin’s record in his six games at Harvard against Cornell: 1-5.

Lin’s record in his first six games as a starting point guard in the NBA: 6-0.

Points scored by Lin in his first five starts — the most by any player since the NBA and ABA merger in 1976: 136.

Time Lin habitually got to the gym when he was with the Golden State Warriors for practices that started at noon: 8:30.

Number of Twitter followers Lin had on Feb. 1: 28,505.

Number of Twitter followers he has now: nearly 600,000.

The value of Lin’s name as a brand: $14 million.

Amount in salary Lin makes per game: $9,620.

Amount in salary Knicks teammate Carmelo Anthony makes:$225,836.

Average Knicks ticket price at Madison Square Garden before “Linsanity”: $229.72.

Average Knicks ticket price two weeks later: $313.54.

Average ticket price for the Knicks’ game against the Heat Feb. 23 in Miami: $612.23.

Median weekly household income in America: $962.42.

Median weekly household income in Florida: $854.01.

The cost for two nights in a rental home in luxury neighborhood Isleworth in Orlando the weekend of the NBA All-Star Game: $27,000.

The number of children who slept in the Coalition for the Homeless shelter the night last November that 60 Minutes aired a segment about homeless kids and families in the Orlando area: 295.

Their average age: 8.

The per-plate cost of a fundraiser with President Obama at Vince Carter’s house in Orlando: $30,000.

The average cost of a meal in Florida: $2.62.

The national average of additional money a “food insecure” person reports needing per week in order to meet his or her food needs: $13.99.

The cost of Nike’s limited-edition Foamposite Galaxy sneakers released in time for the NBA’s All-Star weekend: $220.

The number of deputies in riot gear who tried to calm the shoe-crazed crowd at a mall in Orlando: more than 100.

The price of the sneakers on eBay almost immediately after they were sold at the malls: $1,000 and (way) up.

Amount Lee Petty got for winning the first Daytona 500 in 1959: $19,050.

Amount Jeff Gordon got for winning the Daytona 500 in 1997: $377,410.

Amount Dale Earnhardt got for winning the Daytona 500 in 1998: $1,059,105.

Amount Matt Kenseth got for winning this year’s Daytona 500: $1,589,387.

Filed Under: #Grantlandstats, Carmelo Anthony, Jeremy Lin, Super Bowl