Passionate players in vacuous story (6)
I believe the answer is:
steamy
'passionate' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'players in vacuous story' is the wordplay.
'players' becomes 'team' (sports team).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'vacuous' suggests removing the centre.
'story' with its centre taken out is 'sy'.
'team' placed inside 'sy' is 'STEAMY'.
(Other definitions for steamy that I've seen before include "Full of condensation; erotic (story)" , "Hot with mist" , "Full of vapour; erotic (book)" , "Salacious" , "Hot and humid - erotic" .)