In the world of the patriarchy, sports have always been a way for men to show off their most "masculine" assets. Muscles, brute strength, competition (which includes putting others down), little talk, lots of grunting, the possibility of getting hurt (adds a danger/cool factor in this world), and so forth. Playing sports is seen as making someone "tough", which is a big part of why sports are so frequently associated with maleness and masculinity. Sports, in fact, are so much ingrained into the male identity that even newborn babies (being raised with assumed male identities from birth) are often recipients of clothing, wallpaper, toys, and so forth that are all sports-themed, all before even being able to lift their heads properly, let alone participate in any variety of sport.
As boys grow older, playing sports is oftentimes considered a rite of passage: a young boy will carry on his father's football legacy all the way into high school; another will work to get scouted to play pro-ball in college, the dream his father "sacrificed to raise a family", which he's sure to never let his family forget; another young man will try out for a sport he does not want to play just so he doesn't have to take the heat from his father, knowing that when he does not make the team, he will likely be disciplined in some form or other. Others will join sports teams to try to pass themselves off as "more masculine" than they are, so as to preserve their gender standing in public. I once dated a guy who joined the weightlifting and wrestling teams just so people would not invalidate his masculinity because he was (also) involved in theatre and playing videogames.
It baffles me that something so simple as the concept of "sports", nothing but games with no real objectives besides having fun has become so entrenched in toxic masculinity to the point that it is now being capitalized on. Because men everywhere need to be connected to sports in some way or another, it has become an entire industry yielding high amounts of money for what is, boiled down, nothing more than a game being played for others to watch. That people's lives can revolve around these games that (outside of income) serve no further purpose than entertainment and assertion of masculinity.
This is incredibly befitting of the patriarchy, however. Despite the triviality of it all, masculinity has found a way to ingrain sports into the everyday lives of most Americans. Even if it is just to hear about it casually or to see sports-related images in passing, it is inescapable. We feel so strongly as a society about men playing sports that there is an epidemic in sports (often football) players now that has a head-trauma-related body count. Due to repeated head injury (often from choosing to continue playing a sport after suffering previous head trauma), one can develop something known as CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) that is not only debilitating, but has resulted in many deaths over the years. Why is it that these men feel so strongly about continuing to play their sports? I think it has a lot to do with their sports-abilities existing as part of their male/masculine identities, and letting go of their sports careers means also letting go of some of the masculinity they have cultivated over time.
https://concussionfoundation.org/CTE-resources/what-is-CTE
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