Washington NFL team claims half of earth cares about its preseason camps

An inflated sense of self-importance is a mainstay of today's NFL, but few teams can boast hubris on par with Dan Snyder's Washington NFL team, you know the one that's got a nickname that totally honors Native Americans. Now, Snyder's independent contractors are getting in on the action, celebrating just how massive of a boon training camp has been for the city of Richmond and the entire world.

A pair of numbers that will finally make you understand just how important Snyder and his franchise are to EVERYONE:

$27.8 million

That's how much Richmond received in media coverage thanks to the visiting team from Washington, according to TVEyes, Meltwater and Repucom, the media monitoring services that have a contract with Snyder's team. That's almost enough money to run a campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives, but probably only a fraction of the love shared by Snyder's Don't Blame Me for My Racist Team Name Foundation.

But that number's nothing compared to this one ...

2.95 billion

BILLION!

No, that's not Snyder's net worth, it's supposedly the number of unique visitors who viewed online or print coverage of Washington's training camp last year. For reference, that's about 42 percent of the Earth's population. That number also comes from the media monitoring services working on behalf of Washington's NFL team, and reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Heck, this probably doesn't even include the eyeballs captured by RG3's never-ending personal marketing campaign.

Is one NFL team, the Washington NFL team, really important that nearly three billion people would care about it? YOU BET YOUR ASS IT IS.

Oh, and here's one more number for you.

$500,000

According to the Times-Dispatch report, the city of Richmond turned over revenue-generating activities to the team, and thus was not able to make it's half-million tribute payment to Snyder's team that so graciously shared the good name of Richmond, Va., with three billion people for a surprisingly cost-effective $27.8 million worth of media coverage.

But not to worry. Although the team could reopen negotiations with other cities (which would no doubt love three billion eyeballs), if it misses another $500,000 payment, general manager Bruce Allen says he's "not concerned about that."

(h/t @DCsportsbog)