Do you believe in miracles? The girls' guide to surviving a conversation about sports

Last week, Lily Avnet schooled us in football lingo in her new column, Sports for Chicks.  Today, she's back with some more pointers for convincingly faking an interest in sports.

So you find yourself in a scenario with a favorable guy-to-girl ratio and for once you're surrounded by hotties. Now the pressure is on to show off your knowledge of the current economic crisis or offer your take on the brilliance of the Sarah Palin "cut and run" debate response. But wait. Oh no. Suddenly you're awash in a sea of yellow cards, flagrant fowls, and three point conversion plays. Yup, you just got cornered into a conversation about (gasp) sports. Now you're left with two alternatives:

A) Stand there and nod. Pretend you know what they're talking about (play defense).

B) Awkwardly slip away and save yourself the embarrassment of not being able to participate in this discussion (bench yourself).

Well, if you are unsatisfied with either of these two options, I'd like to offer a Plan C. The media has taught you far more than you realize about sports. Everyone knows Kobe Bryant owns the basketball court while Tiger Woods dominates the verdant pastures of the golf course. By using the logic-based skills that surely got you into to Penn you can absolutely navigate a sports-based conversation, or at least manage to stay afloat.

Say all of a sudden some frat guys begin a rant on football (FYI, the sport of the moment), all you really need to do is know the name of a player or a team to take part at all in this conversation. Then they will insert what needs to be said.

Watch and learn.

Frat Boy 1: Dude, did you see that 38-yard rush?

Frat Boy 2: Oh man it was sick, the Cowboys are gonna go all the way this year, guaranteed.

You: Yeah, seriously, Tony Romo, wow.

Frat Boy 1: So true.

Bravo. I believe you just took part in a conversation about the NFL. By remembering the name of Jessica Simpson's boy du jour (AKA the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys) you have just vaguely added to a conversation on football. Now all you need to do is keep up this vague interest until the conversation moves on to a more accommodating topic.

FYI, I'm borrowing this “say as little as possible” idea from Dane Cook, but due to his own sense of "borrowing" I don't think he'll mind (and you can blame him if this technique does not work out for you).

So remember, your Us Weekly can come in handy for more than just the latest fashion trend or baby bump sighting. The next time you see Giselle on the toned arm of heartthrob Tom Brady, maybe you'll think, "hey, I think he has something to do with football"