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Lots of folks enjoy tossing around the ol' football (aka pigskin) in the frontyard. But are these oblong projectiles really made from the skin of pigs, or is that just an unfortunate expression? We threw out a Hail Mary and prayed for an easy answer. Clearly somebody up there likes us, because we found a great response at AZCentral.com. The column explains that, despite the nickname, footballs are made of leather, not pigskin. A visit to Wilson.com (maker of official NFL footballs) confirms this. So, why then are footballs referred to as "pigskins" and not something equally unpleasant like "dead cows"? The aforementioned column from AZCentral.com
explains that early soccer (or maybe rugby) balls were made from inflated pig bladders. Apparently, the name stuck, and everyone from pee-wee players to blustery broadcasters now calls footballs pigskins.
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