He can bite people because he is a cash cow 
Follow sportsman is odd, playing by proxy
Not really... Consider that most tennis playters I know who play competitively (as amateurs, of course, in the Colonial USTA) tend to play better after watching the pros play. It isn't that odd. They get geeked up watching and actually will emulate things they see. For ref on this phenomenon, see Timothy Galway's book on "THe Inner Game..." As for soccer, I know a number of people who play that as well - and probably do the same thing. My daughter, who just left for Japan, is a big soccer fan and a pretty solid amateur player. She watches, then plays.
But the rest of 'em..? Second handers getting unearned glory from their drunken and sedentary perches (almost as if they were some kind of aging old money inbred Imperial toffs or something). You can practically see them in their slack-jawed and drooling stupor, numbly executing a clumsy monkey-aced dance every time "their" team , duuuuh, "puts duh round thing into dat net box, duuuuh". Afterwards, they no doubt go out in the street to taunt kiddies or jack up old ladies for their subsidiy money.
But maybe I'm reading too much into your comment...
