And Wednesday the league got lucky when Minnesota picked up Randy Moss from New England just as the Vikings are about to get a TV star turn. The NFL's ratings so far are already startling: Its NFL game telecasts are averaging more than twice as many viewers — 18.9 million — as the average number of viewers for primetime shows on the four broadcast networks combined— the biggest gap ever.

Now, the onscreen casting of Moss and Minnesota's Brett Favre could be a ratings booster rocket at just the right time.

It was already logical that league's TV schedule would feature Minnesota's Favre, especially before a body that turns 41 Sunday isn't as beaten up as it will be later this season.

And the NFL is doing just that. Favre's Viking play the Jets in prime time on ESPN Monday, then the mediagenic Cowboys in Week 6 in Fox's featured late-afternoon Sunday slot, then the classic Favre vs. those unappreciative Packers in NBC primetime in Week 7. This game sells itself: Moss showing up in New England to try to show up his old team on Fox in Week 8.

Not that the NFL deserves such luck. Its TV windows for its game telecasts are averaging 11.7% of U.S. households. That's up 9% from last year and the highest average, through Week 4, since 1989.

The big winners in local TV ratings in teams' own markets: Houston (up 51%), St. Louis (51%), Washington (44%), Kansas City (38%) and New Orleans (30%).

Wednesday, Fox's Howie Long said "Minnesota is a good football team and Randy Moss now makes them a great football team."

Maybe. But Moss is obviously an attention-getter. Consider that his famous on-field simulated mooning of Green Bay fans when he was a Viking in 2004 was deemed such an eye-catcher that Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold used footage of it in a TV ad in his re-election campaign. (Moss is supposed to symbolize Feingold's cockiness. Or something like that, depending how you see it.) And adding a Favre-Moss sideshow could lead to an NFL ratings landslide.