I don't what to say. To me, watching sports is fun. When you are talking about a team sport, the team represents some entity, be it a city, a highschool, a college, or even a nation(the Olympics). Its really not about pride in the 18-22 year olds, its about pride in what they represent. When they win, your city/school/country wins, you win. When they lose, you lose. When you cheer on a team for your whole life, after your father and grandfather did as well, you tend to get attached to the team. You tend to live and die by them(not literally, but figuratively). When the Phillies won the World Series in 2008, my family opened champagne to celebrate. When they lost in 1993 via Mitch William's pitch to Joe bleeping Carter, believe it or not, I cried. It can get to you. Can it go too far? you bet. A example of this would be the people in Texas who treat highschool football like its the NFL, and put way too much pressure on the kids. It sounds like your problems aren't will football per say, but with all sports.

perhaps the creation of a different thread for that subject is in order.