I don't like it either, but come to think of it they are right, and we are wrong. It's just a game. Players understand this, and that it's their livelihood, see each other as colleagues and fellow professionals.
We as fans get invested and worked up about millionaires kicking a ball, something we have no control over, and try to embue it with meaning. Get worked up about a stranger's haircut, where he was standing on the pitch, how much effort they seemed put in and what they and their agents say to the media.
Football is (for better or worse) becoming too corporate and sanitized, and fans finding it difficult to invest emotionally in teams. Boxing and wrestling at least put in an effort to manufacture the drama and give a sense of rivalry, and that winning or losing does mean something.