Among NFL teams, the NY Jets generated the most online buzz during the off-season from blogs, message boards/groups, Twitter, Facebook, and online news posts. “America’s Team,” the Dallas Cowboys continue to generate national interest in online discussions, although they were topped by their rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles, who led NFC teams and were second in overall pre-season buzz. The NY Giants, and their regional rival, the New England Patriots, round out the top five teams with the most pre-season buzz.

An abbreviated off-season due to the NFL lockout sparked a flurry of free-agent signings and trades of popular players, and generated considerable online buzz among sports fans.  Looking at players who have changed teams ahead of the 2011 season, Reggie Bush received the most buzz during the off-season with 194k mentions. Comparing buzz about NFL players who joined new teams through free-agency or trade in recent weeks, Plaxico Burress led this group of players with more than 13k mentions during the week of July 31 – August 6, followed by Reggie Bush, Nnamdi Asomugha, Chad Ochocinco, and Donovan McNabb.

One in four active web users in the US visited sites in the Sports category, which amounts to 42.5 million Americans during the most recent week (ending July 31).  Compared to weeks during the off-season, the NFL’s network of sites more than doubled their audience, a 258 percent increase in unique US visitors during the first full week after the NFL lockout ended.

As US sports fans go online for the latest news and stats, Yahoo’s network of sports sites was their top destination during the week of July 31. ESPN.com and FoxSports.com websites were also popular destinations for US sports fans in this most recent week. Historically the months of August and September are the busiest for sports sites, so this may provide another preview of the season to come!

Last Thursday, when the Eagles announced the signing of Michael Vick during a preseason game, it set off a media storm locally and nationally. The game itself was seen by 647,000 viewers in Philadelphia, a 63% increase over the Eagles’ first pre-season game in 2008. Recent online buzz was also high. According to Nielsen Buzzmetrics, the August buzz surrounding Vick overshadowed chatter following his release from prison earlier in the year.

Whether or not Michael Vick is able to rehabilitate his image, the best news for the Eagles may be that despite a risky signing, reports say they have retained all of their corporate sponsors. In fact, Vick has already had an indirect affect on the exposure of Eagles sponsors: his press conference delivered exposure time not only for the backdrop sponsor, but also for the naming rights sponsor of the Eagles’ practice facility which hosted the event.

Just as the buzz began to subside around Michael Vick, news broke on Tuesday afternoon that Brett Favre, after stating more than once that he’d stay retired, was on a plane to the Minnesota Vikings’ training camp, pushing online discussion to levels nearly as high as Michael Vick. Favre’s press conference was seen live on national cable and local broadcast television.

Minnesota television is still buzzing. “Brett Favre” was referenced 452 times on TV in the market alone on August 18-19, according to Nielsen Grabix, which monitors closed captioning. The Vikings and their sponsors are no doubt hoping that the increased interest Favre brings will translate to more eyeballs for their ads and signage. Last year, in his first “un-retirement” with the NY Jets, Favre contributed to a 17% boost in New York viewership compared to the year prior.

With these two signings Philadelphia and Minnesota proved that they were teams willing to take calculated risks which delivered increased exposure for their sponsors, and they hope in the end, a Super Bowl.

In about the time it takes to watch the Super Bowl- with its 30-minute halftime and extended commercial breaks- fans can enjoy two championship-caliber games.

A Nielsen duplication study reveals that 66% of the households that tuned in to last year’s Conference Championships saw BOTH games, with 85% of the AFC’s audience also watching a portion of the NFC game, and 75% of the NFC audience watching the earlier AFC game.

This year’s matchups have their work cut out to top last year’s 98 million gross viewers for Giants-Packers and Chargers-Patriots – the most for any Conference Championship Sunday since 1982. Individually, the NFC and AFC Conference Championships were the  2^nd and 3^rd highest rated television broadcasts of the year, ahead of the Olympics and behind only Super Bowl XLII, the second most-watched US broadcast of all time.

The AFC Championship Game on CBS features the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers, fierce AFC North rivals, who last met up in week 15 for a matchup that was the second-highest rated regular season game of the year for both the Pittsburgh and Baltimore markets.

The NFC Championship will also be a rematch of an earlier game this season. The Eagles and Cardinals met up on the Thanksgiving Night game on the NFL Network, receiving a 1.9 rating nationally and 3.8 million viewers – numbers which will surely be dwarfed by this coming Sunday’s audience

The Eagles and Steelers, in particular, are no strangers to the national stage.

The Eagles, participants in five of the last eight NFC championships, have a strong following across the country. And this season they played in the most watched cable event of all time (vs. Cowboys on MNF, 9/15/08).

Meanwhile, the Steelers are as popular as ever with four primetime games, and seven 4:15pm games this season. Most notably, the Week 14 FOX national game, featuring Dallas-Pittsburgh in 90% of the country, was the most-watched NFL broadcast of the regular season, receiving a 15.6 rating and 25.7 million viewers.