Poll: 10 percent of men more likely to watch NFL after domestic violence debacles

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last updated 8 January 2015

The NFL's controversial handling of a spate of domestic violence cases has made a not-insignificant number of men more keen to watch football games, according to a new Reuters poll.

In the survey, 10.3 percent of men say they are now more likely to watch football, while 14.5 percent say they are less likely to do so. Among all respondents, three-quarters say the domestic abuse incidents haven't impacted their plans to watch football at all, according to the poll, which was first flagged by FiveThirtyEight.

Despite the league's seemingly capricious handling of domestic violence, a couple of new arrests, and the revelation that star running back Adrian Peterson allegedly beat his four-year-old son with a tree branch, the league has hardly seen a drop off in ratings from last year. Combined with the survey results, that suggests that the NFL is not, as some have claimed, headed inexorably toward collapse.

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Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.

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