I agree. The sports communities have not really take off yet. But have you checked out the fanaticus.social instance? It is devoted entirely to sports, and there is at least some level of conversation there.
Oh I have and regularly comment there with a different account. It has the potential to be exactly what I am hoping for, but the comments are still pretty sparse in comparison to what I have grown accustomed to. It doesn’t have to rise to that level, and I think once Lemmy creates flairs it’ll take off a bit more