can sports medicine physicians not be....physicians?

I received my referral to see a sports doctor for this undiagnosed painful popping in my ribcage, but I noticed that the clinic I was referred to doesn't have any MDs even though they say they practice sports medicine...my new doctor said he wanted me to see a sports doctor as opposed to a physical therapist because the sports doctor should be an "actual doctor vs a therapist", and I confirmed on wiki that "Sport and exercise medicine doctors are specialist physicians who have completed medical school, appropriate residency training and then specialize further in sports medicine or 'sports and exercise medicine' (the preferred term)."---that means they should have an MD or a MO right...? The director of the clinic I was referred to has a PT, SCS, and ATC (not sure what the latter two are but I feel like if they're listed after PT then they're less medically valuable and not on par with a MD)................am I missing something? I just turned 26 so I'm new to Medi-Cal and I'm not sure if I should push my weight around to get them to give me a different referral to see an actual sports doctor as I was told I'd be seeing...........how can a clinic claiming to practice sports medicine not have a MD/MO??