'Just win, baby'. Al Davis had a simple but positive philosophy to life and looked to follow it at all times. To date, he's the only man in NFL history to have been involved in the sport as a coach, a general manager, commissioner of the sport and owner of a team. He was also a major proponent of civil rights within the game, refusing to take his Oakland Raiders where players of different skin colors had to stay in separate hotels.
Davis success is all the more extraordinary considering he never played a game of professional football before he became a coach; he was a solid but unspectacular player at high school level and never quite made the grade. He achieved what he did through persistence, and his long tenure in charge of the Raiders yielded three Super Bowls. In his honor, the Al Davis Torch was created inside Oakland Coliseum, burning every time there's a home game.
To insure one’s house, one’s car or to underwrite a life insurance policy, that is common practice. But who would pay an insurance premium for his/her thumb, legs or smile? Stars, of course.
At the top of the ranking are the legs of Mariah Carey, worth 810 million USD: The diva became, in 2006, the Gillette brand muse for the advertising campaign «Legs of a Goddess». She then took out an insurance policy with London Lloyds to protect her legs, a decision that is far from being insignificant. Among its customers, the London insurer then included several icons of music, such as Bob Dylan or Rod Stewart.
David Beckham’s body insured for 195 million USD: European champion with Manchester United in 1999, David Beckham was in 2006 the most renowned footballer of the planet. In relation to his sporting activities, he took out an insurance cover for his legs. The huge amount paid for his insurance would reportedly exceed the 103 million USD disbursed by Real Madrid for the cover of Christiano Ronaldo in 2009. The fashion model would later extend his insurance cover to his entire body.
15 million USD in insurance for Kim Kardashian’s curves: The curves of Kim Kardashian are her number one beauty asset. The reality TV star, who is crazy about plastic surgery, has underwritten an insurance policy worth 15 million USD to protect her famous butt.
The culinary critic Egon Ronay assured his taste buds: The famous Hungarian culinary critic has insured his taste buds since 1957, for the amount of 400 000 USD. An original insurance policy which allows him to cover his sense of taste without which he will no longer be able to practice his job.