Every hobby has a culture that grows up around it, colors it, and pervades it. Learning and mastering the skills of any interest is important, but it's never enough to merely walk the walk. If you truly want to be a disciple of the hobby, you must also talk the talk. Scuba diving has a culture. So do gamblers and motorcycle clubs.
Auto racing has a family of cultures.
Soccer' s culture is almost cult-like around the world. Early on, those who take the game at heart colored it with interactive mathematics, and peppered it with simple rules, league interaction, and traditional team names. Later, technicians, computer buffs, and friends of the first generation discovered the hobby. Now, every NFL player is a public player. This altered the information gap between teams and improved the balance of team rosters.