My grandpa, dad and I support the same football team. We pass it from generation to generation. This is pretty common in Europe with football teams, and also in the US with the NFL teams. In Europe the teams even have extremely fanatical groups of fans called ultras.
I was wondering if people were this sport crazy in the times before football.
I'm afraid that as a layman I can't provide you with a satisfactory answer, but I from what I can recall, the closest comparison can be made with the Byzantines and chariot-racing. I'm talking about the Nika riots in 532 AD.
In antiquity, chariot-racing was incredibly popular, and it did give rise to certain demes, which backed chariot-racing factions, if you could call them that. Similar to modern football associations, in some way or another. In emperor Justinian's time, chariot-racing had led to the creation of two powerful factions within Constantinople, the Blues and the Greens, and these groups wielded considerably political as well as cultural influence in Byzantine public life. It was such that in this incident, a squabble exploded into a political revolt against Justinian within the city.
(Note, more accurately, members of team Blue and Green were sentenced to imprisonment. Both factions responded pretty violently.
It took a bloody military intervention by Justinian's commanders, and a little more, to put down the revolt. It was pretty bad. Half the city went up in smoke. Really bad. So I suppose you could point to the Nika riots and say people were sport crazy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots. Well, could be worse.
You could also check out Extra Credit's videos on Justinian. They cover it a little. I would take what they say with pinch(es) of salt, however. Addendum: A LOT of salt.
http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/source/procop-wars1.asp
Procopius. Looks like he hates the demes, but his account should capture the scope of the riot succinctly.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/15B*.html. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire. More on the Nika riots. It prefaces with an explanation of Justinian's former political ties to the Blue Faction, too. Which should attest to the political influence that the most powerful demes had at their disposal.
(I hope someone can provide a more adequate answer. I'm not sure how good my sources are.)