Most sports games aren't really about playing sports, so much as they're about watching sports. Or more to the point they're about making it so the sport you're watching gets to play out exactly as you'd imagine it, as a fan at home, in your head.
He should have passed to him; she should have made a run there; if only he'd caught that. Playing a FIFA or a Madden is a chance to correct the wrongs of the professional players, not to play as them. You're more manager than player - and more omnipotent every-player in the sky, really, than manager, gradually cycling through control of individual players on a team while the others either remain static or fulfill their roles automatically. There's strategy, sure, and all the decisions and counterfactuals and split concentrations that sports tend to involve. But it's really not anything like the real thing. And that's fine!
In fact it's more than fine, it's great, because it leaves space for other games to fill the gaps. Games like Star Trek: Bridge Crew - a great team sports game. Destiny is a sports game - at least during raids - as are Diablo, World of Warcraft, Overwatch and, of course, League of Legends. That's because team sports, you see, are about everyone doing their damn job, and League of Legends captures this better than anything else.
