I am curious if anyone has made a connection between organized sports and conflict?

OK, here is my thought process. While putting together a paper on war in the human domain I came to realize that young men are pron to become involved in conflict because they are genetically predisposed to that activity. In essence, war is a young mans game. There are many reasons for this which I won't explore now, but I am curious if anyone has thought about using sports as a surrogate for conflict as a way to appease those aspects of being a young man that is prone towards competition and conflict?

I am leaving this wide open to start with. I will expand on my own ideas after others had had a chance to chime in or degrade.