I think part of the difficulty of imagining sports as a defining feature of peoples' lives is the profound inequality in the sports world. The number of professional sports players is extremely low and will decrease relative to the athlete population over time. Imagine the inscription then, on the tombstone of one of these athletes. Not "He strove for greatness". Not "SOCHI 2014 BRONZE" or anything of that sort. How pathetic would it be for your highest achievement in life being that you kicked a ball around adequately? Who here can honestly imagine themselves satisfied with such an empty existence? And if you can't, then in my opinion the idea of sports as a solution to the deaths of despair problem is at best seriously flawed.
The difference is that (ideally) a software developer makes the world a better place to live in (again, ideally). So would a welder, or a doctor, or anyone else working a useful job. Secondly, I had a point about why this doesn't seem like a realistic solution to this problem: If you can't put yourself directly in the shoes of the person you're trying to help, then you may need to reexamine your solution and find out why.