But enough of the NFL season has passed to say this: The NFL, already the sports world's Daddy Warbucks, is on a ratings roll.

Consider that its TV game time slots — whether filled with multiple games in regionalized coverage or single games shown nationally — are averaging about 17.1 million viewers, the highest in 20 years.

The raw number of viewers for anything don't always mean much, since the U.S. population is always expanding. But with ratings, NFL games so far are averaging 10.5% of U.S. households. Ratings haven't been higher since 1995.

The rating boost defies easy explanation. The theory that the recession is behind it — more people are staying home in front of their TVs — seems logical, except that such a correlation didn't always happen in previous recessions or in prosperous times.

And it's not like big TV markets — such as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia or Washington — have teams on big winning streaks. The four NFL TV markets with ratings boosts up 30% over last year — Cincinnati, Phoenix, Minneapolis-St. Paul and New Orleans — are in relatively small cities that hardly sway national ratings.