Pop Religion

As an avid sports fan I had never really seen the parallels between the mentality of a fan and that of a religious follower.  Similar to how a Christian may study their bible or a Muslim may read the Karan, a sports fanatic will delve deep into newspapers and online articles to absorb all the information that they can about their specific team.
While people have gatherings for their religious worship, sports fans have similar gatherings where they come together to worship the team they support.

At traditional religious gatherings, people may wear specific attire depending on their beliefs; a tradition that is shared at sporting events where the fanatics will wear only clothes that adorn their teams logo and matches their teams colors.  

Not unlike religion, sports have also resulted in violent conflict.  People are often very passionate about their religious beliefs,  and a similar level of passion is afforded to a specific sporting team.  While conflicting religious beliefs have been the catalyst for wars, conflicting sporting allegiances has resulted in fighting, rioting, and other forms of violence.  
The parallels between religion and sport fanaticism is an example of the crossover between religious beliefs and pop culture.