As a former The Oracle Sports Editor, one may expect that I am knowledgeable about athletics. The truth is, however, I’m still not sure what sport is being played in the World Series or what month March Madness starts in.

Last year, after seeing the disappointment in former Sports Editor Eric Epstein’s face when I asked for the third time, “What is the Super Bowl?” I realized that inorder to fit in, I must embrace the culture of “sports-loving.”

The best trick technique to use when pretending to like sports is simply nodding along and smiling. If you’re not an actual sports fan, you probably have no idea what your teacher is saying when they lead the class discussion in the direction of how “Kwame Brown was the worst draft pick.” The best strategy in these situations is to laugh along with the rest of the class, pretending you understand what’s going on. If you simply go along with the crowd, no one will stop and question if you even know what sport is played in the “National Basketball Association.”

Another thing to remember when pretending to like sports is to be casual about it. If you don’t actually know anything about baseball, you should not show up to school wearing San Francisco Giants merchandise. This is a novice mistake. While to an outside observer it may look like you are an avid baseball fan, the risks are far too great. If you are wearing sports merchandise, there is a high probability that somebody will ask you what you thought of the “game last night.” In this situation, it is likely you will be exposed as a fraud. If you want to pretend you like baseball, the best strategy is quickly googling “World Series” and skimming the headlines to give yourself fast conversation starters.

Sports culture dominates conversations and Snapchat stories, and it can be difficult to embrace if you are not an avid sports fan. While pretending to like sports is easy on a small scale, it is important to not get too wrapped up in it. You risk endingup watching a three-hour baseball game without knowing what’s going on when youcould be at home catching up on “Cake Boss.” The majority of people won’t actually care if you do not know anything about the World Series or the Tour-de-France.Oftentimes the best strategy is simply saying, “I do not follow sports.”