NFL enjoys record TV ratings despite Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson scandals

Despite the public relations nightmare the NFL has endured throughout the first month of the season, football fans continue to watch in record numbers, according to Reuters.

Following Roger Goodell's highly criticized two-game suspension of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, his concession the league botched the punishment upon TMZ releasing footage of Rice's domestic violence incident and his stumbling through a series of media appearances in the aftermath — not to mention the Minnesota Vikings' mishandling of running back Adrian Peterson during his child abuse case — many fans vowed to stop watching the NFL in protest of a global brand gone awry.

Through the first three weeks of the season, CBS, NBC and ESPN have seen a rise in their NFL broadcast ratings, according to the latest Nielsen data obtained by Reuters. CBS has reportedly seen the most significant jump, skyrocketing from an average of 17.8 million viewers in 2013 to 19.5 million per week this year. Meanwhile, "Sunday Night Football" on NBC has seen a 2 percent increase to 21.8 million viewers, and even ESPN's cable numbers are up slightly to 11.5 million weekly watchers.

While Fox's viewership remains in line with last season (20.7 million vs. 20.5), Sunday's high-profile, down-to-the-wire game between the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers is expected to give those numbers a boost when Week 4 figures become available on Thursday, according to the Reuters report.

If you were among those who figured the NFL was too big to fail in the wake of one of the worst PR months in league history, these latest numbers seem to support that theory, as the viewing audience has actually increased in that span. Then again, people stop to watch car wrecks, too, so it'll be interesting to see if the spike in ratings persists and how the NFL's merchandise has fared in the same timeframe.