The inclination when you shoot a sports event is to grab a lens with some length and zoom in on the action. A perfectly good strategy. Fill the frame with a telephoto. For football, soccer, and baseball, 400-600mm; for basketball and volleyball, 70-200mm. Each of these lenses has the capacity to yield great shots. But, is that the only strategy for sports shots? Negative. What about the other end of the lens spectrum – wide angle? Is there a place for a wide angle lens in sports photography? Absolutely.
Wide angle is typically anything less than 50mm. For sports, a little cheating is fine so I would redefine wide angle as anything less than 70mm. The typical lenses: 24-70mm; 14-24mm; and a fisheye – usually 15mm or 16mm and funky as all get out.