Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs has an offseason hobby his teammates might mock: reading comic books. Mr. Briggs is a self-proclaimed comic nerd with about 500 books in his collection, some of which he auctions off for fund-raisers. He says he doesn’t know any other comic-book readers in the NFL. “A lot of guys say they like them, but then you talk about the books and realize they’re not real comic-book lovers,” he says.

—David Biderman