Quarterback/Signal-caller

Those are brutal edits. I'd definitely have a conversation about this.

 

All these suggestions are good. You might also consider chopping off the editor's hands.

 

Thanks, guys. The suggestions have been helpful, but some of them do seem a bit harsh. ;D

Freelance, there are two quarterbacks playing in a game. So once I've said that one guy is the quarterback, the other inevitably becomes a signal-caller. Also, it gets changed to signal-caller in features rather than using the player's name again (as in: "The Podunk signal-caller" instead of using "Jones" again). Sad, but true.

 

I would try to talk to the guy - while I usually agree with spnited, you might have to clean up after you shoot the guy and some people in the office might have their clothes ruined with the splattered blood.

I would say something like - "I talked to an experienced sports editor when I was in college/at a previous job/at a seminar and when I asked about using those words, the experienced sports editor said he would strangle me. I'm curious why you would put those terms IN my story."

And then just try to talk to him and work things out. I think the one thing he can't argue with is that your terms, which he might think boring, are 100 percent accurate. A punter or holder or back in a single-wing offense (spnited, for your suggestion of violence you can explain what the single-wing is since you and I might be the only people who remember that) can call signals. A frame is in bowling, not in football or baseball.

 

Lock him in a room with Kenn Finkel for two days with nothing but a copy of Elements of Style and a jug of cheap wine. That'll fix 'em.

 

Your writing is better than his.

 

Jones would never use signal-caller.... Ask him...

 

Billy, you've got to talk to your editor about this. Ask why he makes the changes, explain why you don't like the changes and then go from there. To repeat what others have already said here, those are weak edits that never should have been made, and you need to address this. Otherwise, it won't ever stop.

Just curious, does he change "runners" to "harriers" and "wrestlers" to "grapplers" too?

 

Anyhoo, that's horrifying to imagine, an editor that bad.

 

This editor probably would look at a headline like 'Prep Cager Inks Juco Pact' and consider it a masterpiece.

 

So your stories will read: "Bumfuck Christian Tech quarterback..." and "Douchenozzles' signal caller..."? Then, yeah, that's pretty lame. You do have a problem.

 

The coaches call the signals from the sidelines anyway, so to call the quarterback the "signal caller" is also factually inaccurate.