TA's inability to follow sports like football likely affects his ability to interact on a very basic level with other men. Honestly, I have a rather passive interest in sports now, as opposed to my high school and late teens-to-late twenties years. At this point, outside of mma, I keep up with all the major sports simply for the small talk it provides in the office and with some of my more casual male acquaintances.
What happened to the Yankees the previous night, or whether The Jets will win their division after this weekends performance, or how LeBron, D-Wade and Bosch looked in their debut...that's what the guys will be talking about at work all day, and even though I really don't give a shit anymore, if I didn't keep up I'd be left out of the small talk and look like an anti-social douche.
Sports are the small talk fallback option for men, whereas for women its celebrities or fashion, or some other crap.