Ya gotta hand it to the NFL. Seven months off and they don’t miss a beat.

Last night’s season opener, a rematch of last year’s Super Bowl, not only lived up to its hype, but showed once again why professional football in this country can dominate our culture like no other.

Drama? Check.

Violence? Check.

Put this product on TV and no one is allowed to do anything else for three and a half hours. Comparing it to anything else is like comparing Facebook to a stick-figure drawing.

I was pleased, of course, with the result of last night’s game. I always root for underdogs, and even though they were the defending Super Bowl champions playing at home, the Denver Broncos were certainly an underdog against the shoulda-won-last-year Panthers. Starting a quarterback who going into last night’s game had the experience of a thimble, the Broncos and their vaunted defense held Carolina’s all-everything QB Cam Newton in check and overcame a 10-point halftime deficit to win 21-20. A last-second field goal attempt by the Panthers would have won it (at the stroke of midnight, no less), but the ball sailed through the Rocky Mountain air just left of the uprights, much to the delight of the Denver faithful. Entertaining to the final play, NBC executives and NFL front office types could take a bow, knowing they’d put on a great show once again.

Fall is officially here, and we are off to a great start.