To celebrate the kickoff of the 2011 NFL season, fans will be offered free previews of NFL RedZone channel, SiriusXM NFL Radio and NFL Sunday Ticket, as well as free shipping for all orders on NFLShop.com, on Kickoff Sunday (September 11), it was announced today.

All fans whose television providers carry the widely acclaimed NFL RedZone channel -- which whips around every NFL game on Sunday afternoons, delivering the touchdowns and most exciting moments as they happen – will receive the channel free on Kickoff Sunday. Comcast, Dish Network, Cox, Charter, Verizon FiOS, and AT&T U-Verse are among the operators offering the NFL Network-produced NFL RedZone channel.

SiriusXM NFL Radio will offer XM Select Package subscribers the chance to listen to every home and away radio broadcast of each game on Kickoff Sunday (via www.siriusxm.com/max1 or by calling 888/749-2689). The only place on radio for NFL news and analysis 24 hours a day, seven days a week, SiriusXM NFL Radio offers the home and visiting team radio broadcasts and national Westwood One radiocasts for all 256 NFL regular season games and the playoffs, including Super Bowl XLVI.

All DirecTV homes which don’t already have subscriptions to NFL Sunday Ticket and the RedZone Channel will on Kickoff Sunday receive at no charge the subscription package which includes all AFC and NFC regional network telecasts of Sunday afternoon games (subject to blackout restrictions).

In addition, fans will receive free shipping on all orders placed at NFLShop.com Thursday, September 8 through Monday, September 12.
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Mark Ingram wanted the jersey No. 22 more than anything.

It was the number that he made a name for himself with during his Heisman winning campaign at the University of Alabama.

However, No. 22 was taken by veteran cornerback Tracy Porter.

After some inquires to Porter to see if he would relinquish the number, Ingram realized he would have no such luck.

Besides No. 22, another number held a special meaning for Ingram.  

“Twenty eight s a special number to me,” said Ingram. “I was picked 28; my dad was picked 28. He wore 82 when he played in the pros. It has a deeper meaning than that, so I am happy with the number and it has a meaning to me. That’s good.”

Mark Ingram Sr. played 10 seasons in the NFL with the Giants, Dolphins, Packers and Eagles. He was part of the Giants’ Super Bowl XXV championship team.

Ingram Sr. is currently serving time at a federal prison in Ashland, Ky. Inrgram Jr. calls his father his mentor and credits his success on and off the field to his guidance.

“He has been a positive influence on me throughout my whole life,” said Ingram. “He taught me everything about not only football but about being a man.”

That father-son bond is mirrored by fellow Saints first-round selection Cameron Jordan and his dad Steve.

Steve played 13 seasons for the Vikings, where he was a six-time Pro Bowl selection.  Steve and his son are very close and talk on a regular basis.

Cameron calls his dad his favorite teacher and a “buffet of advice” for him his entire life.

“My dad is always trying to teach me,” said Jordan. “He and my mom have been able to help me out and put me in a better situation in life just because I always bring a high energy. That’s never a problem. It’s more about focusing that energy, and they have done a great job in doing that with me.”

Jordan said the words of wisdom proved crucial early in training camp.

Without the benefit of a rookie camp or Organized Team Activities (OTAs) in the offseason due to the lockout, this year’s rookies were in more of a hurry-up mode to be ready for the start of the regular season.

The lack of preparation made Jordan and other rookies open to more critique from their coaches and teammates to start training camp.

When Jordan would start to get irritated by someone bellowing at him regarding a mistake he made, he thought back to the words of wisdom from his father.  

“My dad always told me to keep persevering and always look to find something to improve on,” said Jordan. “When a coach gives you some sort of constructive criticism you have to take it for what it is and that no matter what tone it is in you have to be able to accept it. My dad made it easier for me to accept and embrace advice from your teammates and coaches.”
The appreciation Jordan and Ingram have for their fathers was never more evident than at the NFL Draft.

Ingram and Jordan were among the 25 college prospects invited to attend the draft.

Jordan was projected as a top-15 selection by a number of draft experts.

However, four defensive ends were selected in the first 23 selections; Jordan wasn’t one of them.

Jordan took the drop in stride and just continued heeding his dad’s advice.

“It’s all going to work out,” Steve said to his son. “Your time will come.”
 
The Saints selected Jordan with the 24th pick. Despite the unexpected wait, Jordan called his selection a blessing.

“The whole draft process was a bit eye opening, but you have to remember not everybody gets this chance,” he said. “I am just happy to be selected at all. I am looking to help anyway I can.”

The Saints traded with the Patriots to take Ingram four picks after Jordan.

Ingram was smiling ear to ear walking to the stage at Radio City Music Hall after his selection.

Ingram embraced Commissioner Roger Goodell and posed for the photo-op at center stage.

The dream-to-reality moment was hard to fathom for the 21-year-old running back. His emotionally-filled day had hit its climax – he was officially in the NFL.  

After the photo-op, ESPN's Suzy Kolber interviewed him. Ingram tried to keep his emotions in check for the nationally-televised interview. However, Kolber read Ingram an email that his father sent her earlier.

Ingram could no longer hold in his emotions. He pulled his hat down as tears began to flow. Hearing his father’s proud words was too much for the normally composed running back.

Ingram looked into the camera to deliver his father a message

“I want to thank you and let you know I love you man – we did it,” Ingram said.

That’s how Ingram saw the night; it wasn’t about him. It was a collective reward for “we” - his father and the rest of his support system that guided him to the highest level of his profession.

The Saints open the NFL regular season Thursday night on the road against the defending Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers.
 
The spotlight couldn’t be brighter on the two first round selections, but neither is phased by the hoopla – they were raised for this moment.

“It’s primetime,” Ingram said. “The first game of the NFL season. Everybody is going to be watching. I am excited and have been working hard my entire life for this moment.”

“I am not sure my dad ever played in an opener like this, and it’s my first game,” joked Jordan. “All the hard work and dedication is for this opportunity. I will do whatever it takes to help this team succeed.”

One thing is clear about the Saints first round draft picks: The only thing that matches their desire to succeed is the love they have for the men that fueled it.
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This may be the first week of the regular season, but it has the feel of a Super Bowl week for the NFL. One of the reasons is that we will unite with the rest of the nation on Sunday to reflect on the anniversary of 9/11 and honor the spirit of America.

All of us in the NFL appreciate your patience and understanding through what was a most unusual and challenging off-season. Now we are ready to enjoy what the NFL is all about -- great players, great fans, intense competition, the performance and passion surrounding America's most popular game.

Thanks to the hard work of our players, club owners, teams, and staff, the NFL's pledge to deliver great football to our fans has been strengthened and is more secure than ever. We start the regular season and the race to Super Bowl XLVI with tremendous anticipation and momentum.

We want you most of all to sit back and enjoy it – in our stadiums, on television, and wherever else you connect with the NFL. Football fans enjoying football is what we love.

Be assured, however, that we believe in better. Players, owners, coaches, team and league staff – working together -- will be putting our collective foot on the accelerator. We have more work to do to improve our league and game on a variety of fronts. We will do that by continuing to focus on the quality of the game and innovation. And we will do it relentlessly.

On behalf of everyone in the NFL, thank you for your incredible support, and thank you especially for sharing your views with us. Please keep it coming. We value your opinion because it helps make us better. The passion of our fans and communities is what makes the NFL so special.

Thank you again. Let's get it started.

Roger Goodell
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Opening Statement:
“

Turk McBride (left ankle) did not practice, Mark Ingram (right toe) did not practice, Jonathan Casillas (right knee) did not practice, Scott Shanle (left shoulder) was limited, Sedrick Ellis (left hamstring) was limited, and Jon Vilma (left knee) was full.  Today was mostly third down like all Thursdays.  We went outside.”

Do you feel like you haven’t been outside in a while?
“It’s been a while.  I don’t know how long.  I thought the work we got was good.  I think the temperatures were similar to what we’re going to see on Sunday.”

Was that what you were aiming to do with practicing outside today?
“Just to create that (type of) environment.  We’ll try to do the same tomorrow.”

Are you going to try to do that Saturday in Tennessee at their stadium?
“We are going to go to Tennessee and do it.”

How much will you practice in Tennessee?
“It’s more of a half an hour walk-through and just kind of getting used to the field conditions and really the turf there.”

Are you not worried about getting out of your routine for Saturday?
“We’ve done this before.  I would say this has been something we’ve done at least half a dozen times.  In fact, in ’09 it became a pretty standard routine for us with quite a few places where we just ended up having what we would have here Saturday morning and flying out at 1:00pm, flying out earlier and having it at the stadium we were going to.  I would say it’s probably part of ‘Plan B’ in regards to a second routine.”

Do you ever feel like the Saints don’t received enough credit for being enough of a physical football team?
“I think it comes down to winning and losing.  Certainly that was an important element of what we were able to accomplish a couple of years ago.  I think it’s been an emphasis for us certainly this year in regards to how we want to play.  We’ve had some good road wins really.  Cincinnati last year was a physical game on the road, but I think you try not to as best you can to allow that.  I think the points of emphasis we make each week within the framework that we’re playing and the conditions we’re playing in, we pay close attention to.  There are some games that kind of unfold in a certain way that dictate you run or throw more, or defend run or defend pass more.  We just have to be ready to adapt and handle that.”

Did the preseason game against the Titans help you out at all?
“I think from a standpoint of personnel, it allows you to see a team up close and personal and recognize some of the strengths and weaknesses.  To me, it seems like that was two years ago.  Every once in a while, you have a preseason game that you repeat and play that team again in the regular season.  It seems to happen every other or every third year.  I do think that, probably more than anything else, helps you with personnel and your evaluation of certain players.  Our scouts do a lot in the preseason when they’re looking at a team that comes in during the preseason because we’re looking at rosters and who’s cut.  I think from that element, it does.”

When you said it’s a point of emphasis a minute ago, did you mean to be more physical?
“Just in regards to running the football.  I was using the running game as that example.  We point out week-to-week it’s one of the most important elements to winning and losing is winning that battle and understanding the importance of playing very physical football.  It’s the very nature of the game.  It’s necessary in order to win.  Regardless of the type of offense or defense you have, that element has to exist if you’re winning.  It will be an important element in this week’s game.”

Did you feel different last year going into your games compared to this year with the running game?
“I think there’s more teeth in your play-action pass.  There’s one element to being able to control a game sometimes and that’s being able to rush the football.  It’s harder to do when you want to control a certain tempo or how you want to play in the second half.  It’s an important element we think (is) to winning.  Those totals each week might vary, but the ability to be two-dimensional as opposed to one-dimensional I believe is important.  That doesn’t mean there are weeks where there are a lot more throws or more runs, but I think that it’s an important element to what you do to defenses and what they have to do (to you).  You hear a lot of the times defenses talk about making an offense one-dimensional and I understand that.  It’s important that we don’t allow that to happen.”

You’re not saying you want to get 150 yards every game running the ball, but you want to run efficiently?
“Yes, it’s interesting how these things tie together.  You want to be able to operate with efficiency on (both) first and second down.  The one thing we’ve done this year as well is we’ve picked and chosen opportunities to run the ball on third down, not necessarily third and one, probably more this year than we have in a while where that too can help your conversion rate and third down efficiency. But I think those early downs of staying ahead of the chains and putting yourself in manageable third down situations, there are some games where your third down attempts are low and you had a very productive game offensively and that means generally on first and second downs you were getting first downs.  I think it all fits together and that’s who we want to be when we look at our goals and make up our offense with our personnel.”
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Are you going to go to the Sugar Bowl game to watch Virginia Tech?
“I’ll be there.  We’re hoping we’ll have a bye, but you don’t know.  What we’re doing is going to come first.  I’ll find my way to get to the game.”

What are your thoughts on Matt Hasselbeck?
“He’s a friend until we play.  I think he’s as good as any veteran quarterback we play with understanding the game.  He plays with a lot of instincts, which when you do that you take coaching out of it.  The really good players take the robotic coaching out of it because they can play the game.  Drew (Brees) does that so well.  (Tom) Brady does that well.  A guy that’s played as long as Matt takes a lot of the things that you try to trick up and he can figure those things out.  It doesn’t take him very long.  He’s played the game for a long time because he’s smart and he’s productive.  We have our work cut out for us.”

Does that Seattle game still sit in the back of your mind?
“I’m sure if you talked to any of our guys throughout the course of the week, they’ll tell you I’ve been on them hard.  He’s in a little different system now.  He still controls it there.  I know a lot of those guys up there, and it’s been a long time since I’ve been in that building.  It’s been 11 years since I’ve been in that organization.  Six of those coaches played for me and three other ones coached with me and one other one I hired and was with me with the Redskins.  There’s familiarity there.  Once you get inside the white lines, the players play the game.  That’s why it’s fun really with the guys we have here is that good coaches understand that you don’t take away player instincts.  As we continue to grow here, the more instinctive our players play here makes me look like a better coach.  You don’t want to fill their heads with so many things.  I tell them all the time I don’t want to coach robots.  This is not a video game.  There’s human error, human element, and everything in the game.  You guys have to be able to make decisions on the fly and on the run.  Our guys are growing in that way and hopefully they grew a lot from that game last year.”

Can you talk a little about Chris Johnson?
“He picked a nice month to start finding his stride.  Not only just him, but also the guys around him.  You have to be so sound that he’s one of those few backs that can take it the distance against you.  You make a mistake similar to some of the other guys we’ve played, you can have two guys at the point of attack on block, and he shimmies and shakes their ankles off on a move and it doesn’t matter how many players are there.  We’re going to have to swarm him and do a good job with that.  You pick your poison when you’re putting more people to stop him and less people on stopping the pass.  There are all those situational things you have to do, but he’s very talented.  He didn’t get all that money unless he’s talented, and he’s very talented.”

Is your run defense also having its best month?
“We’re improving each week without all the early stuff and early preparation.  We’re improving in those things.  With the multitude of packages we’ve played, we’ve kept guys healthy that way.  Like I spoke earlier in the year, one of the things was that we have a couple of older players in certain positions we try to not have and not play as much early in the year so they can play in the month of December.  They’re playing pretty well.”
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