When the Dallas Cowboys — known as America's team — took a knee before the national anthem and then beat the Arizona Cardinals, they provided the strongest evidence yet that President Donald Trump can't keep fans away from football.
ESPN said overnight ratings rose 63 percent from a year earlier for "Monday Night Football." Ratings for Monday's game were helped by a favorable comparison to last year, when the game competed for attention with a presidential debate.
While audiences shrank Sunday for NBC and Fox, the viewership boost from the Cowboys, one of the league's most popular teams, helped lift NFL ratings out of an early-season ratings slump. NFL viewership had been down in the first two weeks of this season.