GT and Arnold, the best assessment of the nature of sports I have ever read is the chapter called "Modern Survivals of Prowess" in Thorstein Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class. It has some of the most quoatable phrases I've encountered, such as "the free resort to force and fraud." The last paragraph is the most succinct:

"The two barbarian traits, ferocity and astuteness (or cunning), go to make up the predaceous nature or spiritual attitude. They are the expressions of a narrowly self-regarding habit of mind. Both are highly serviceable for individual expediency in a life looking to invidious success. Both also have a high aesthetic value. Both are fostered by the pecuniary culture. But both alike are of no use for the purposes of the collective life."

He also makes great connections between sports and religion, as in, "the habit of invidious comparison and the appeal to luck."