Even though the Cowboys usually play just one game a week, they more than satisfy fans’ appetites by generating news, no matter how contrived, in the days leading up to their Sunday events.

Terrell Owens is whining. Pacman Jones is beating up bodyguards. Tony Romo is lunching at a posh eatery with Jessica Simpson. Jerry Jones is doing damage control.

Etcetera, etcetera.

This happens to a lesser extent in every other NFL city, too. Each team’s daily minutiae and the steadfast reporting of said minutiae is part of what makes the league so popular. (Oh, no! Will Romo’s injured pinkie heal in time for him to rescue the Cowboys’ season?)

It’s an excellent model to follow, and one quite suited to MMA since the lengthy breaks between big-time fight cards are similar to the way the NFL schedule works.

So, maybe UFC president Dana White wasn’t out of his mind when he said in the August edition of Playboy that, in eight years, the UFC would be more popular than the NFL.

While that’s an overly ambitious pronouncement, MMA appears to be off to a good start – and that’s really all it is. MMA, at this point, could be likened to the NFL of the 1950s, when it existed on the fringe of attention before Johnny Unitas and Raymond Berry showed off their telekinetic connection in a national TV performance that sent the league on its journey into the stratosphere.

Right now in the world of MMA, big story lines are developing, reputations are growing, stars are revealing themselves, fans are flocking.

Minutiae, meanwhile, is being reported and consumed with gusto, just like with the NFL.

As an illustration, take the soap-operatic feel of many MMA headlines from the past week. A recap follows. (Cue the silly music and super-dramatic voiceover.)

The Backlash: Everyone saw this coming. For goodness sake, a former pro wrestling heel has kicked in the MMA door and snatched the UFC heavyweight belt from a living legend – and he did it rather easily. Whether you think Brock Lesnar got an undeserving crack at Randy Couture’s title, or you believe he’s the brand of superstar who can propel MMA to unseen heights (a much scarier, much less-artistic version of Unitas-to-Berry), this freakish man elicits passionate reactions from all fanatics. Get used to Lesnar. He will only get better and he will only assist the sport. Even if he loses the belt in his next bout, he’ll continue racking up monstrous PPV numbers for the next decade or so. That probably won’t keep angry folks from bashing him on message boards, though.