Why are sports so overrated?

Every day there is some sort of a sports game on. Either baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey and so on and so forth depending on the season. The way some people go on it makes it sound like your eternal salvation is at stake if you don't watch a game. Why is that? What makes people so involved with sports? After thinking for a few minutes the only reason I can come up with is the because of the media. They make it sound like you're a social misfit if you don't watch the world series, the super bowl, or even the NBA finals. In my family it's fun to watch sports from time to time but it's not like we're going to die if we miss one little game. I tend to think it's that way for some people, because at school if they happened to miss one of the NCAA games they go crazy. There is obviously something about watching a ball go in a hoop, or a ball being kicked into a goal that is so exciting. So unless the media stops overrating sports people will continue to make a huge deal out of them.