Not everyone works in a San Francisco-based start up that employees 90% technical folks. Perhaps people are just interested in a low-effort conversation item so they can interact with co-workers, neighbors, and a different social circle? Some engineers like the fact that they can enjoy fantasy sports for the nerdy, statistics aspect and still be involved with something enjoyed by "normal" people.
Not everything in life has to be about programming. And caring about sports does not preclude you from having technical discussions either.
I gave programming examples because of the HN crowd here. In my own life, it varies quite a bit. In the past week, topics have included:
* Fluorescence. (At a cocktail bar full of blacklights. Any cocktail containing tonic glowed due to the quinine.)
* Comparing the stories of Alistair Reynolds and Lawrence Watt-Evans. Their fans seem to overlap quite a bit, even though their genres are different.
* Beard growth. Why most militaries don't let soldiers grow beards. (Beards prevent gas masks from sealing well.) How fast beards grow. (About 5 nanometers per second, hence the beard-second as a unit of measure[1].)
* Noticing that dentists can replace teeth, but doctors can do little for chronic back pain.
Not everything in life has to be about programming. And caring about sports does not preclude you from having technical discussions either.