I had no idea why an American football was called a “pigskin”. I always assumed that it was due to the original American football being made out of pig hide.

In reality, a football is made out of cowhide and there is a rubber bladder inside that holds the air to keep the ball from rupturing when all those beefy athletes pile on top of it.

In the “old days”, the ball was made with cow hide but used a pig bladder to keep the air in!