By Doug Lesmerises
The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal

This season, the National Football League is claiming its greatest success since the modern NFL began in 1923 with 18 teams.

Polls show the NFL to be almost twice as popular as baseball. In addition, the league has a record-setting television deal that brings in $2.2 billion each season.

And while baseball ponders dropping teams, and two hockey franchises have filed for bankruptcy this season, the NFL's credit rating makes the league stand out as a model business plan.

The NFL is a picture of financial health and marketing acumen. According to a Harris Poll in October, about 100 million Americans, almost half the adult population, are very interested in that picture, with an additional 25 million taking a peek every now and then.

"I think the league is at an all-time high, and it just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter," said Troy Vincent, a former NFL player and now the principal partner in Eltekon Holdings LLC, which analyzes investment opportunities.

Particularly compared with other sports. The National Basketball Association receives about $770 million (about one-third of the NFL's $2.2 billion package) from its newly signed TV deal, Major League Baseball makes about $416 million (one-fifth) a year and the National Hockey League gets about $120 million (one-twentieth).

The NFL's TV package doesn't include a five-year, $2 billion deal it signed with DirecTV in December.

"Regardless of how the other sports are faring," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said, "it's not a matter of if the NFL is No. 1, it's by how much."