Are footballs really made out of pig skin?

They wrote a Letter a Couple Months Back.

Are footballs really made of pigskin?
Joey
Ypsilanti, Michigan
Dear Joey:
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.

2007-08-16 05:45:57 · answer #1 · answered by tfoley5000 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋

Leather is the tanned animal skin.

Good quality footballs ARE made from tanned pig skins, not from the leather of other animals.

Cheaper footballs are made of synthetic rubber.

Football originally was derived from a game which was played with an inflated pig *bladder*. A bladder isn't skin, and it isn't tanned into leather. However, this is probably the reason why footballs are a porcine product.

2007-08-16 05:51:50 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋

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Are footballs really made out of pig skin?

2015-08-18 18:47:54 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋

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2016-10-03 03:21:37 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋

Actually they are made from cowhide. They've always been made from cowhide and never from porcine (pig) hide. One of the answers was correct that early forms of balls were made from inflated pigs bladders and hence the name "pigskin" since saying pig bladder would've been offensive.

2007-08-16 07:34:36 · answer #5 · answered by sgiandubh 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋

They used to make soccor balls out of pigs skin, but now we use leather, but Lee "annoying" Corso still calls it that

2007-08-16 05:51:29 · answer #6 · answered by Judge me by my music 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋

Get the porker back! lol. Leather mostly my friend. Why waste a good sausage?

2007-08-16 05:52:05 · answer #7 · answered by jamoca 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋

synthetic fake leather. NOT real leather
http://www.soccerball.com.pk/construct.htm

2014-06-17 02:56:24 · answer #8 · answered by Tzm 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋

back in the day
today it is a composite leather and pastic.

2007-08-16 05:59:04 · answer #9 · answered by Michael M 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋

nope, leather

2007-08-16 05:47:06 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋

Are footballs really made out of pig skin?

9 answers