IMHO, but as a (rather) sports-loving geek, I think a lot of it is the fact that the aspects of sports that (stereotypically) won't interest geeks get emphasize

IMHO, but as a (rather) sports-loving geek, I think a lot of it is the fact that the aspects of sports that (stereotypically) won't interest geeks get emphasized a lot in news/media/sports coverage - a lot of the coverage focuses on the in-the-moment athletic achievements of players, whereas there is a lot of strategy below the surface. It's actually totally reasonable, then, to basically look at every sport as a real time strategy game. Some sports are really good at this (IMHO, this is why I like soccer more than many Americans), but even the NFL can enjoyably watched through this lens if you'd really like to view it that way. The problem is that this type of thing isn't often really covered in sports broadcasts, which makes it hard for a viewer to connect with.