You're both working toward a goal. 

LeBron James is about to reach an NBA milestone and become the all-time leading scorer in NBA history. Your goal might not be as lofty, but you're still working toward one. 

And here's where we can think outside the box scores and use a major sports headline as a way to check in with your own progress. 

You don't have to be a basketball fan to recognize the name LeBron James. You don't have to care about his milestone, but I know you care about yours. So make it about you. Use sports as a trigger or reminder for tracking your own progress. 

It's just one of the ways you can use sports conversations and sports fandom in productive ways at work. 

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but there’s no such thing as sports talk “for women.” I’m a woman who’s worked in sports broadcasting for 20 years and I don’t know what that means.

The implication is that women need special help talking sports or that you need to talk to women differently that you would talk to other sports fans. That’s just not true. (And if it was, TV and radio broadcasts of games would sound much different.)

Sports fans are sports fans. That’s it. End of story. You don’t talk to fans differently because of their gender. Wait, maybe I should clarify, you shouldn’t talk to fans differently because of their gender.

When people distinguish male versus female fans it’s often a misguided attempt to categorize different types of fans. I think they’re trying to say that not every fan wants to talk about stats and draw the distinction that some fans would prefer to hear more about a...

If there’s one universal takeaway from the Olympics over the last week – it’s that sports isn’t just about the outcomes. Sports can be used to tackle much bigger conversations, like mental health. Simone Biles is a tremendous athlete, the best in the world at what she does. And she is human just like you and just like me.  

Sports at its core is about coming together as human beings and being part of a community, whether you are a community of athletes or a community of fans. You can use sports to be rude, divisive, and controversial or you can use sports to bring people together. 

I hope you will choose the latter and use these sports conversation starters to build relationships in small talk this week.

Halfway through the NFL season I feel (mostly) comfortable with how I’m maintaining and building relationships without stepping foot in a locker room, on a sideline or being able to have in-person conversations.

All the time I’ve spent over the years getting to know the Seahawks players and coaches pays off now when I have to rely on different forms of communication.

Here’s the thing – you can’t maintain a relationship if you never started building one.

Every conversation counts towards building relationships, and every single relationship I’ve built inside the Seahawks locker room started with small talk.

Small talk matters. Make the conversation count. Use these sports #ConvoStarters to get the ball rolling.

A week ago I was preparing to write an article about using sports conversations to maintain connections while offices started working remotely and “social distancing” was in the initial stages in Washington. As the week progressed the article changed. I started thinking about what sports looked like without fans, and how that could change conversations.

It became clear those social distancing measures weren’t going to be enough when the NBA and NHL suspended their seasons, so I made new notes about following sports other than the "Big 4" to get your sports fix. 

Then the sports calendar emptied. Sports came to a complete stop.

The health and safety of everyone involved made it a necessary step. So, this week there are no games, outcomes or upcoming events to talk about. The storylines are pretty narrow and limited.  

So why am I still talking about sports? It’s simple.

Sports fandom doesn’t stop just because sports are on hold.

Sports are...