I've recently come to the realization that people enjoy conflict and tribal allegiance and war for its own sake (!!!) and not for any other ulterior goal of obtaining resources, or meeting needs or wants.
Some like to say that NFL and other such artifacts of popular modern culture are just "bread and circuses". A somewhat better analogy is that they have replaced the gladiator games of the Roman Empire -- albeit, without the blood and the gore, but with all the enmity and tribal allegiances, nonetheless.
An even better analogy is that modern electoral democratic politics replaced the gladiator games of old. Modern politics and the political institution of the Nation State is just as (or, far more) tribal than the literal tribal wars of pre-modern societies. Likewise, they are far, far more bloodier and wasteful of life than the gladiator games, in which the bloodletting and tragedy was contained to a few.
But, what's the point of these conflicts?
While some of it relates to the advantages of societal control that accrues to the victors, recent events have led me to conclude that many enjoy forming tribal allegiances, and defining victory not as a meeting of one's own needs or other wants but rather as a victory over the other tribe, for its own sake! I've even recently encountered folks who switched sides, and still retained all the loyalty and zeal, in condemning the other side (which was their own former allegiance).
While moral principles were largely rejected and rationalized away in modern society, pragmatism at least drove people to derive some practical benefits for themselves from the parasites. With even pragmatism itself waning, sheer primal partisanship (for its own sake!) has become the be all and end all, for some.