1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

"We'll break it all down from here."

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by inthesuburbs, Oct 2, 2016.

  1. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Those buzzwords are all used to cloak what is really freaking obvious: Sports aren't that hard to understand. It is vitally important that coaches have you think it is, the better to protect their haphazard decision-making.
     
  2. dirtybird

    dirtybird Well-Known Member

    Really?

    I mean, the broad strokes are not that hard to understand, sure. But the specifics are endlessly granular. They're so much so, it's sometimes a wonder how people can be devoted to such small bits of physical rhythm, balance and technique. Now you could argue most readers might not care, which is fair, but your readers might also be irrational, demanding for the third string quarterback to play and judging every call on outcome instead of approach. I don't know if the goal is to reflect that.

    And there are many writers who watch the games through that same petulant light. I've sat in press boxes and seen writers shout out critiques that don't match what just happened. I've seen them unable to discern between coach's call and execution. A lot of folks will assign precise meaning to the sort of random ebbs and flows that happen in sports. If this was all that easy to understand, I'd imagine we'd have far less of that.

    (I suppose it's perfectly fine to view spots through a simpler lens, but that makes it harder to turn around and act like an expert on the details)
     
  3. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    I can only say this. In 1987, my rookie year as a beat writer, then Pats offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia told me only half-joking, "the most important thing to remember is that it's a simple game." In 2016, Bill Belichick brought Scar out of retirement for what I'm sure was very good money to coach the O-line again because in the AFC title game, the Broncos proved Scar was right.
     
  4. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    I think you might be right but I'm going to wait 'til the next segment when Herm breaks it down.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page