On Thanksgiving, I sat with some of my daughter Laura's friends, mostly female, at her home in San Francisco. We were in the middle of watching the third of three football games that day -- San Francisco at Baltimore -- after watching most of the first two games. One of them said, "God, I love Thursday night football.''

Did I mention there were six women in the house? Five play fantasy football. One's a Redskin nerd. "What quarterback will we draft next year?'' she asked me.

Three or four times a month, I'm amazed at the power of the NFL. Like that Thursday in San Francisco. For example, I was on vacation this year, a guy in a hotel in Vienna walked up to me and said, "Think they'll go on strike? Sure hope not." Or I'll be in an airport and someone will ask me fantasy advice (silly them). Or, just the other day in New York, a young kid came up to me and said, "Hey, you're the football guy. What should the NFL do to Suh?'' He was referring to the Lions' Ndamukong Suh, after he stomped on a Packer in a game.

My Sportsmen of the Year are Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith. A bit symbolic, yes, but I did a long story with Goodell last winter for Sports Illustrated, and I remember one scene when I was negotiating access with him and his PR men. I wanted to sit in on one labor discussion with other owners. I'd have taken anything -- a dinner with his labor committee, a splinter discussion on any one issue involved in the talks, anything.


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/magazine/sportsman/11/29/King.Goodell.Smith/index.html#ixzz1flTjypRH 

Peter King wrote: