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Sports
How to be a Fake Sports Fan
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In only three tips, find out how to fool even the most experienced sports fan. By Jonathan Terry In only three tips, find out how to fool even the most experienced sports fan. October is the busiest sports month of the year. Avoiding talk about sports is nearly impossible at this point. Here are three tips to ensure you don’t get caught looking like a fool this month.
ficity. Talking about a particular player or even a specific play will keep the conversation going. If the thing you bring up is too specific, you will likely be asked to elaborate on why you think the Patriots are going to win the Super Bowl, something you may not be ready to answer. Searching on Twitter is a fantastic way to come up with a good opinion. No one will even
know if you restate the tweet word for word in a conversation, which makes it the perfect way to find information. 2. Do Your Homework This tip goes hand and hand with a specific take. Searching for a player from a team on Twitter and reading what people have to say
The National Football Leagueseason is in full swing, the Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer playoffs are underway, Champions League— the annual football club competition—has started, and the National Basketball Association regular season is just a few weeks from tipping off. October is arguably the best month in all of sports, with these major sporting events coming across the TV nearly 24/7. During this month, you are inevitably going to come across a big fan of one of these events and may have to put up with a conversation or two. You could act disinterested and let them take the hint, or you could trick them into believing you not only care but also have a thing or two to say about the subject.
3. Keep Them Talking
Trying to trick someone into believing you are a sports fan is not an easy task. The only chance you have of making it work is by allowing them to dominate the conversation. Looking like you are interested and making comments that show you are digesting what they are saying is the most crucial piece of all. You don’t even have to register all of what they are saying. Try to shape the few things you do mention to fit with what the other person is saying. If possible, try to occasionally disagree with them in small areas. This method will let them know you have your own opinion and aren’t just going along with what they say.
Being a big follower of 60 percent of these sporting events, I may be the perfect person to provide you the advice to sound like a real fan. Who knows? You might even find that you enjoy being a fake fan and pick it up for real!
These tips are only temporary aids. They will likely get you through one or two conversations, if you are lucky. My hope is that you are inspired by these tips—so much so that you decide to become a real sports fan! If that it is the case, I suggest you check out my podcast, “Not Gonna Lie.” Episodes stream weekly from Spotify and Apple Podcast.
1. Keep Your Opinion Reasonable People will discount you right away if your ideas are too far out in left field. Calling the best player in the league “overrated” or saying that a 0-5 team “isn’t that bad” is unacceptable. You better come ready with facts to back up this claim or whoever you are talking with will be able to sniff out a fake. The keyword in this tip is speci-
about them is a way to prove you know what you’re talking about. It is essential to research both the positive and the negative, or you might be caught off-guard. Also, if someone asks you what you think about a player but you don’t know who they are, tell them you haven’t seen enough of them to form an opinion. Then, turn the tables on them and ask what they think of the athlete. This idea saves you from answering a question about a player, since you likely don’t even know what position they play.
College basketball intramurals are a great place to practice being a fake fan. Photos from ASWWU.
