Have you read Kilcullen's "Out of the Mountains"? He contends that amateur soccer/rugby teams are very central to insurrections.
But I am having trouble with the vision of organized sports as a surrogate for organized conflict. At the strategic level, the best sports can rise to is a diplomatic lever (Nixon's ping pong diplomacy with China, for example). As a domestic surrogate for violence, it also fails, as there are often fights or worse around contentious games. The way gangs often identify with specific teams, while continuing to engage in criminal activity also argues against your premise.
At the individual level, I think you have a point. Sports is a way for a young man to channel their energy in a positive way. But this is easily corrupted, for example, the many professional, college, and high school athletes that act as if they are above the rules that bind us lesser mortals. Also, this bizarre obsession with getting kids athletic scholarships to the point where college athletic scouts start watching middle school games, and parents would rather have their kids ignore homework than miss a game.
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