NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Now that the dust has more or less settled on deflategate, the National Football League is giving us something else to talk about: just how much it's worth.
According to Forbes' annual ranking of the league's most valuable franchises, the average NFL team is worth $1.97 billion. Combined, they are valued at upwards of $62 billion -- well above the average market cap of the S&P 500.
"The NFL is the number one sport in the United States and occupies a special spot in the American sports psyche," said Michael Colangelo, assistant director of the USC Sports Business Institute and senior editor at sports business publication The Fields of Green in an email to TheStreet.