Inventions in sports have revolutionized the way sports are played and watched.
Here are the top 10 most valuable sports inventions of all-time.
10. Gatorade - The sports drink that does more than water should get more credit than it does. Don Beebe might have been a yard or two late getting to the showboating Leon Lett in Super Bowl XXVII. Beebe ran 40 yards in 4.35 seconds in the chase of Lett. Would that have been possible without the hydration power of Gatorade? Not a chance. Gatorade has given fans fourth-quarter athletic performances that may have not been possible otherwise.
9. The Protective Cup - Men (and their wives) everywhere should be thankful that someone had the idea to make something to protect their nether regions. Bad hops, misguided knees and Dennis Rodman are no match for the hard plastic groin armor. Would we have all the families in sports we do now? If it weren't for the cup we may not have Kellen Winslow Jr. (Kellen Winslow), Brian Griese (Bob Griese), Ken Griffey Jr. (Ken Griffey Sr.), Aaron or Bret Boone (Ray Boone), Barry Bonds (Bobby Bonds) or Moises Alou (Felipe Alou). The guys may have never graced the sports world if an errant ball and cup-less midsection had met.
8. Skycam - Originally introduced in the XFL, Skycam gives fans a whole new look to football games. It's the best view in the game, but they need to use the view more often. The traditional sideline angle is great, but showing a majority of the game out of the eye of Skycam would take it to a new level.
7. The goalie mask - It's still unbelievable men used to stop rock-hard hockey pucks with their faces. Jacques Plante first wore the mask in 1959 after he was hit in the face earlier in the game. Plante was actually ridiculed for wearing the mask. Most thought wearing a mask was cowardly, clearly a case of too many pucks to the head.
6. The sports ticker - The strip of sports scores at the bottom of nearly all the sports channels is pure scrolling goodness. Getting up to check scores on the Internet or changing the channel to a different game is absolutely not an option.
5. TV sports packages â€" NFL Sunday Ticket, NHL Center Ice, NBA League Pass, ESPN Game Plan and all the other satellite and cable sports packages allow any game to be watched by anyone at anytime. Gone are the days of three NFL games on Fox and CBS (at least for those with the money to spend). Sportsless nights are no more!
4. Steroids - No, I'm not condoning the use of steroids, but I'm convinced they saved baseball. The homerun binge of 1998 brought fans back to the game and made baseball worth watching again. They could also be thanked for one of the funniest moments in all of sports. The juice may be the only reason Carlos Martinez's fly ball conked off Jose Canseco's steroid-enlarged cranium for a homerun against the Cleveland Indians.
3. Fantasy Sports - There's really no other reason why anyone would pay attention to a Tampa Bay Devil Ray - Toronto Blue Jay game in September if not for fantasy sports. The cyberspace leagues have reached unimaginable proportions with kids to middle-aged men. They also have given us the ESPN fantasy football girls.
2. The first-down line - "How do they paint that line on the field?" I know you've heard it from someone, but even those who don't know it's accomplished by a computer recognize its genius. Marvin White of Sportsvision, the line's creator, should have a shrine built in his honor. Well, on second thought, maybe not. His company was also the creator of Fox Trax, the terribly unsuccessful highlighting of the hockey puck in NHL games.
1. Instant replay - First introduced to sports in 1965 for CBS football games by the MVR Corporation, instant replay's impact on sports is probably beyond what MVR could have ever imagined. With the advent of the coach's challenge replay has even made its way into the game. Any invention that was made to help watch the game and then used in the game has to be No. 1.
