When you look at why football is so important in the Rookie Universe it's because the sport brings the diverse sentients together and keeps them from waring.  The last episode posted (Ep 21) has a great section in it that talks about the necessity of keeping the atmosphere, gravity and temperature in strict ranges for the games.  At 7:31 in the episode, it's mentioned that,

"All of the five race the play football have similar atmospheric requirements.  While this is a primary reason for the endless galactic war as these five races seek to expand their territories, it is also the very glue that holds the GFL together.  Many hypothesize that oxygen breathing biochemistry is evolution's best choice for fast moving aggressive animal life.  Sklorno, Ki, Quyth, Human and Heavy G are all oxygen breathing animals...."

Basically since the invention of Faster-Than-Light travel, the majority of the races had been fighting for the same planets and territories because they require similar living conditions.  The wars that were fought were brutal...just see what Sklorno did to the Whitokian home world and you can see why the Creterakians swept throughout the galaxy with the mission of stopping the races from fighting with each other.

For a brief history, I would recommend reading the GFL entry in the wiki here, or for the detailed view check out the Galactic Timeline in The Rookie hardcover (print exclusive).  

I suppose, though the real question is will there be more stories set in the past before the Creterakians took over. And one would hope so, seeing as how The Crypt episodes are set several hundred years before The Rookie.

... and things can be revealed, if people are prepared to wait...

Stay Alive

To conceive of such a thing. Oh my!

Big smurfing tease!!

[flickr-photo:id=5353037802,size=m] & Proud member of the Gutter Sistren

i am pretty sure there is a war coming oh yes indeed and the crypt will tell of what happens when sentients kill sentients in the FDO's universe

A Flying Spoon, and Faithful Servant of The FDO

I was going to add, that i came to this conclusion after re-listening, to the crypt and The Rookie/The Starter.  There are a few key parts starting to really line up via the crypt "past" to "current" events. I also think Lord Sigler is going to stun the pants off us, come the All-Pro.  You are a very sneaky man lol. I see what your doing, sorta. 

..thats all I have...