The modern version of "bread and circuses"

It was a vaguely disappointing weekend of football watching for me, beginning with the Iowa-Nevada snoozefest that ended up lasting nearly seven hours due to three different lightning delays. Iowa won easily but few will bother to remember the 27-0 score. People will remember those lightning delays and 70,000 fans sheltering in the bowels of Kinnick Stadium.

Our son and some friends were there, and apparently many fans simply withdrew to downtown bars after that first interruption. After all, they had weather apps on their phones and could see that the storms would continue most of the night. And they had been sitting in rain most of the game previous to the delays.

I gave up after 10:30 or so and set the recorder to capture whatever happened in the second half. It wasn't all that riveting to watch late Sunday morning, believe me.

Then came the Broncos' home opener and another snoozefest, though one devoid of electricity of ANY kind. Injuries, dropped passes, poorly thrown passes and endless penalties combined to produce choruses of boos from the stands. When the fans began counting down the play clock in the second half, I wondered if the Denver players were annoyed or grateful. After all, there had been a few delay of game penalties.

Media "experts" were universally appalled by the new coach and the seeming disarray and many fans are already questioning all the millions the team will be paying Russell Wilson for years to come.

My practice on Sundays is to spend most of my time on NFL Red Zone, the network that pops among games, always alert for a big play or anyone threatening to score. Those boring games in Iowa City and Denver couldn't match the incredible comebacks (or letdowns, in the case of the losing teams) that happened... and that make for great TV.

Thrilling comebacks are part of what makes pro football so appealing -- I saw that all but one event of the most-watched TV of the past decade were football games, which likely says something about the country (for good or ill?).

It is likely that ancient Romans at gladiatorial games had similar hopes of a close match or an upset -- and when you were upset by an opponent in those games, that was fatal.

From my point of view, I would prefer the teams I am rooting for to win easily, thus reducing my stress level, and that all the other games on TV on so many channels would be nail-biters. 

I haven't been to a game at Kinnick Stadium in over 20 years and have never attended a Broncos game in person, but I still allow myself to care about what happens.

It's particularly instructive to think of how even winning isn't enough at times, at least for fans relaxing at home or screaming (and counting down from ten seconds) in the stands.

I assume most Ukrainians could not care less.

Rightly so.