Talk Sporty 101: Start small

There are a lot of things you could talk about when you become a sports fan, and that’s part of the problem - there are too many things to talk about.

Here’s the best way to approach it: start small and start with the headlines.

Instead of watching all the football you can handle on a weekend and hoping to remember one or two things, pick one team to follow. You can narrow your focus even more and choose a favorite player on the team. When you see out information about your favorite player you’ll ended up learning about the team, league, opponents and trends along the way.

I know that still sounds like a lot and here’s where the headlines come in. Sports headlines are your secret weapon to building your sports knowledge base in a way that you can actually remember what you read and jump into sports conversations right way.

Now, when I say headlines, I literally mean just the headlines. I prefer the ones in an actual printed newspaper, but you can glance at the headlines online. Newspaper headlines are intentionally written as a summary of the article, game, event, etc… Headlines include anything in bold print that goes with an article, like a sub-title or even the caption under a picture. Everything that’s printed on the page or included on the website is designed to give you information.

I make this even easier for you by providing weekly conversation starters every Monday morning right here on the blog. The list includes about five topics with enough facts to contribute to a conversation and I make sure the big trends get covered, so if those are the only headlines you read once a week you’ll still be able to talk sporty.

After 20 years in sports broadcasting and watching hours of sports for my job, I can say with great certainty the newspaper headlines provide a good snapshot of what happened in a four hour game without having to watch a single play.

Lastly, I want you to notice what I didn’t suggest… studying a rulebook or even learning the rules of the sport you’re going to follow. Is it helpful to know the rules? Sure, it makes it easier to understand what you’re watching. But it’s not necessary to know all the rules, or even any rules, to talk about headlines making news. Sports fans don’t spend nearly as much time talking about rules as they do headlines.  

So make it a point to glance at the headlines and you’ll be talking sporty in no time.