Great Jenkins lead on SI.com

not sure if this is in the issue too, but this is how you write a lead....

SAN DIEGO -- When the San Diego Chargers hired Norv Turner to be their head coach, they had to know that he lacked charisma, leadership skills, motivational abilities and the winning touch. But they could be sure that he was qualified for the job in at least one respect: He understood how to develop a young quarterback as well as anybody.


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/lee_jenkins/11/20/turner/index.html?eref=T1

 

Won't make me forget this one:

Outlined against a blue-gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below.

 

Dammit, I was hoping for a Dan Jenkins lead when I opened this. I guess I should've known since he probably hasn't been in SI for 20 years, but still . . .

 

I was less impressed with the story and the editing when I read these passages:

"From the time the Chargers drafted Rivers, fourth overall in 2005 . . ."

"After the 2003 season, the Chargers basically gave up on Brees. By the time he returned to form in 2004, it was too late. The Chargers had already drafted Rivers and awarded him a long-term contract."

Jenkins is excellent, definitely part of a new group of hires that has raised SI even further recently. And I'm sure there will be a chorus of the "I'll bet you never made a MISTAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" crowd. But a factual error, misstated in two different incorrect ways . . . sloppy. Better is expected of SI.

On another note: reading that story last night, I finally discovered and read a lot of the old NFL stories they have now. And the difference between, say, a Dr. Z or Fimrite Super Bowl gamer and a Michael Silver one is like night and day. Replacing Silver with people like Jenkins and Hack is like being the Expos in the Delino DeShields-Pedro Martinez trade.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/writers/classic_nfl/archive/index.html

 

for you OTD:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/features/superbowl/archives/12/
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/augusta/si_history_stories/1975.html

 

I'm sorry. I don't see why this would be singled out as anything more than an ordinary lede.

 

I liked the direct-ness of it. No pussyfooting around. Same with the Mandel lead on Charlie Weis.

 

I agree. I like it, but I wouldn't hang it on my wall and marvel at it.

 

I'd like to see what an editor would do if that Grantland Rice lead were filed today. I'm betting it would be the end of that stringer's career.

 

is this some sort of joke?

that lead sucks

sucks

 

From "It's great" to "It sucks" in 10 easy posts. Nice.

Here's to this marvelous subjective business of ours!

 

Go SJ!!!!!