Expect the New England Patriots and Houston Texans to be two of the leading teams in the 2012 AFC season (Image | Getty)

It is often referred to as America’s game and the parallels between the nation and its most popular sport are too many to list, but one thing is for sure the NFL is all about ‘big’. It is the most profitable sports league in the world with television deals worth $27 billion, and franchises worth an average of $1.2 billion. Each NFL season is worth about $9 billion dollars to the US economy, this compared to $7.5 billion for the NBA or $3 billion for the NHL. Pro football is big business and this season is promising not to disappoint.

The 2012 schedule kicked off on Wednesday with a 24-17 triumph for the Dallas Cowboys over the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. This season looks to be closer than any in recent memory with almost all of the thirty-two teams significantly bolstering their rosters in the off season. So here is The Armchair Pundits’ preview to the 2012 NFL season; we will take a look division by division and pick the playoff picks from each and then at the end a Super Bowl prediction, that’s right we are picking the overall winner before it has even began.

Tonight: previewing the AFC

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