The 2012 National Football League season kicks off tonight from MetLife Stadium when the Dallas Cowboys travel to do battle with the New York Giants. (Link)
The Giants’ roster actually features three former NC State Wolfpackers, tied with the Seattle Seahawks for the most in the NFL.
- Markus Kuhn who was drafted in the seventh-round last season has made the team’s final roster, in part due to yet another injury to former UNC defensive lineman, Starvin Marvin Austin.
- Sean Locklear has joined the Giants after spending seven seasons playing offensive line with the Seattle Seahawks and last year with the Washington Redskins.
- Andre Brown is back in New York where he started his career. Â Brown enters his 4th season as the Giants’ 4th string running back.
Speaking of Dallas, just today Forbes magazine announced that the Cowboys have retained their title as “The Most Valuable Team” in the NFL for the 6th consecutive year.
The Dallas Cowboys are the first North American sports franchise worth over $2 billion and remained the most valuable NFL team for a sixth consecutive year, according to an annual survey released by Forbes on Wednesday.
The Cowboys have failed to make the National Football League (NFL) playoffs for two straight seasons but their value rose to $2.10 billion, a 14 percent jump from last year and nearly double the league average of $1.11 billion.
The New England Patriots ($1.63 billion), Washington Redskins ($1.60 billion), Super Bowl champion New York Giants ($1.46 billion) and Houston Texans ($1.30 billion) rounded out the top five.
Forbes said the average value of the NFL’s 32 teams rose seven percent from last year because of new television deals, a new labor agreement and higher premium seating revenue.
All told, NC State has nineteen alums currently listed on NFL rosters. Pack Pride ran a little summary of each NFL Wolfpacker that can be seen by clicking here. Other than the obvious interest that the whole country seems to have in Russell Wilson’s rise to rookie starting quarterback in Seattle, I think I am most personally interested in the move that Mario Williams made in the off-season to Buffalo.
Williams, a two-time Pro Bowl starter and six-year member of the Houston Texans, is set for a new beginning in his first season as a member of the Buffalo Bills, after signing one of the richest contracts given to a defensive player in NFL history – a six year deal that could be worth $100M. Williams was shifted to an outside linebacker position last season in Houston, but the Bills have reverted him back to his original position as one of the league’s best pass-rushing defensive ends. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft has 241 total tackles, 53 sacks and 11 forced fumbles for his career.
Before you go I ask you to please click here and log your NFL predictions for the season. It will be fun to come back to the thread at the end of the year and see how everyone did. And, lastly, I leave you with something that is of the utmost importance when thinking about the 2012 NFL season — a link to Sports Illustrated‘s Broadcasting Guide!
ESPN’s Monday Night Football was the most-watched series on cable for the sixth straight year, with an average of 13.3 million viewers.
