Gladiators weren’t the NFL of Rome.
“I think that’s part of the underlying fundamental problem with this film: it needs Rome to be about gladiators and thus for the Colosseum to be the symbol of Rome and the utmost expression of the Roman state and culture. It needs that not because that was true about Rome (it wasn’t, really; the Romans loved gladiatorial games, don’t get me wrong, but they loved a lot of other things too) but because this film exists to invent a lucrative franchise called Gladiator, rather than merely a singular one-off movie. And turning Gladiator (2000) into a franchise requires making gladiators the center of the Roman world (which they weren’t)”
https://acoup.blog/2024/12/13/collections-nitpicking-gladiator-ii-part-ii/