Super Bowl parties have even become a romantic relationship litmus test in a lot of social circles. I've noticed, at least with the people I know, that it was super common to bring girlfriends and later wives to Super Bowl parties. For the unattached/marginally attached guys, this is an unbearable feeling. I stopped going to Super Bowl parties in years when I didn't have a woman to bring to one.
A lot of sports fans are big time beta males as you described. Sports watching is voyeuristic, like watching porn and masturbating. Go out and play sports, don't watch them. I care far more about my own playing of sports than spending hours watching a game.
I think folks that are rootless tend to be much less interested in watching sports - why should they? They have no allegiance to anything so there is no participant to root for.
Of course, it must seem odd for so much emotion to be experienced with watching a sport - but then again, why would competing in a sport, with the stakes being so utterly unconsequential, be so emotional? The reason that so much emotion is experienced is because sports, especially team, territory capture & defense sports like soccer, American football, etc. are an experientual activity that humans perceive as nothing less than tribal war, where the stakes are as consequential as can be - the life of the vanquished men, the taking of their women, the enslavement of their children. A fan's team scoring a goal or touchdown is regarded by the deeper parts of consciousness as part of a battle being won, a game/match being a whole battle, and a championship being a great war that has been won. International competitions, with the prominence of the participants' countries, are as just as nations - i.e., tribalism at the next higher level of abstraction.
I don't agree on the "voyeuristic" aspect, but rather the "I could imagine myself there" aspect, which obviously is what porn is about. And while individual competitive sports like boxing could be done, team sports are trickier nut to crack, especially American football with the level of preparation that must be done to have it played at a top level - i.e., as opposed to a couple of blokes in a random pickup game that no depth of strategy. (Most men have a job to pull down the bacon, and either a wife that needs to be gamed, or a lot of time devoted to PUA or OLD, so they might only get a few hours a week in a few months per year to devote to this level of spectator sports - this is in addition to doing his own athletic activity just to stay in shape.) Watching a sporting event at home is just one way someone can decompress from the necessary activities he does in life, just like watching a movie - actually doing the event is a compressing activity.
And taking this line of thought further, why even listen to music? A person should always be playing the music, right? Why should Sir Paul McCartney take in a musical since he could just play his bass instead? An author should always be writing and never read someone else's work. Hey Steven Spielberg, don't enjoy some other director's movie - continue busting your butt to make more movies.
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