Inside the creation of Nerf Football, the amazing story of a Super Bowl star, chance meeting, and 50

Publish date: 2024-05-03

NERF has become one of the most recognizable toy lines over the last 50 years.

But Nerf owes its success and longevity to a former NFL kicker and a chance encounter.

Born in 1938, Fred Cox was a high school and college running back at Pittsburgh.

Drafted in the eighth round of the 1961 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns, and in the 28th round by the New York Titans in the AFL Draft, Cox opted to head to Ohio.

Hall of Fame coach Paul Brown intended for Cox to act as a blocker for another Hall of Famer, running back Jim Brown.

Unfortunately, a back injury led him to switch to kicker, at the request of Brown.

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Cox ultimately lost the job to Lou Groza - universally regarded as one of the all-time greats at the position.

The Minnesota Vikings subsequently traded for Cox, and the rest was history.

Over the course of the next fifteen seasons, Cox made 282 of 455 field goal attempts and 519 of 539 extra points attempted.

After appearing in 210 regular season games, and another eighteen post-season games - including Super Bowls IV, VII, IX, and XI (all of which they lost) - Cox hung up his cleats for good.

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Cox remains the Vikings' all-time leading scorer to this day with 1,365 points, a huge 695 points ahead of receiver Cris Carter in second.

But by the time of his retirement after the 1977 season, Cox had already secured his future.

During his football career, Cox had studied to become a chiropractor, setting up his own practice where he would go on to earn around $100,000 annually, as per the Wall Street Journal.

This was around twice what he made as a kicker.

But this wasn't his biggest source of income in later life thanks to a chance encounter with an entrepreneur named John Mattox in 1971.

Speaking to NFL Films, Cox explained: "This man knocks on my kitchen door, and I said 'What can I do for you?'

"'I'd just like you to look at a game that I have and tell me what you think.'"

Maddox had designed an adjustable toy field goal for kids to use in their backyards, and his intention was to use a ball that was "heavy so they can't kick it out of the yard."

Citing concerns over kids suffering sore legs, Cox suggested foam rubber instead.

And as it so happened, Cox had a contact who worked in injection molding.

They subsequently brought their product to Parker Bros., the makers of the original Nerf (Non-Expanding Recreational Foam) indoor ball which had been released in 1969.

"When the man at Parker Bros. saw that football, with a skin on it looking exactly like a regular football, I could just look at his eyes and know he was sold man," Cox said.

Their new ball went on sale in 1972 and according to the Pittsburgh Press, sales hit 8.5 million by 1979.

"It really never dawned on me until they were selling six or eight million of them a year exactly what had happened," Cox admitted to NFL Films.

"Of course, I wasn't about to turn it down cause they kept sending checks."

And thanks to Parker Bros. failure to predict the toy's longevity, Cox continued earning up to $200,000 annually until his death in 2019, as per Smithsonian Magazine.

"The average toy lasts five years," Cox told NFL Films. "And they just assumed that this ball, after about five years, was gonna disappear.

"And of course here we are 48 years later and they're still making them, and they're still paying because there was no end date on our contract.''

The two-time NFL scoring leader went on to add: "How can you fathom that's somethings lasted 50 years that came into being probably in ten minutes. I'm really proud that I invented that thing."

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As for Nerf, the brand spread well beyond football into toy guns, other balls, and even pet toys.

Nerf has a reported brand value of $462 million.

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