Best writing of Super Bowl LVIII

[MeanGreenATO]

*blows dust off the Writers' Workshop board*

In an effort to perhaps bring some craft talk back to SJ (which, by the way, is a great way to bring young and new members to the site), I figured I'd start with a thread featuring some of the best stories/content off of Super Bowl LVIII between Kansas City and the 49ers.

I'll start with The Ringer's Ben Solak, who put together this multimedia gem on deadline: https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2024/...-mahomes-game-manager-chiefs-49ers-super-bowl

 

[Songbird]

Did Solak ever watch Michael Vick play?

There wasn’t a thing—not a damn thing—that he couldn’t do. He ripped open the 53-yard-wide football field to hit windows and angles and cross-body magic tricks never before attempted. He got out of the pocket like none other and, when out of the pocket like none other, dithered like none other, so carefree, waiting for the defense to bend, bend, bend, and break against his gravity, his vision, his right arm’s reach.
​

 

[MeanGreenATO]

Did Solak ever watch Michael Vick play?

There wasn’t a thing—not a damn thing—that he couldn’t do. He ripped open the 53-yard-wide football field to hit windows and angles and cross-body magic tricks never before attempted. He got out of the pocket like none other and, when out of the pocket like none other, dithered like none other, so carefree, waiting for the defense to bend, bend, bend, and break against his gravity, his vision, his right arm’s reach.
​

Ha! This is only going to enhance the argument that Solak is a child. But thanks for the response! I wish this board was used more often. It could be a great resource for those who are still in the business and sports writers who are just getting into it.

 

[Songbird]

argument that Solak is a child

No, that's not what I'm saying. I read most of his piece and it was fine but it lacked.

It also fell victim to MacGregor's GREATEST EVER RIGHT NOW!


Great! Greater! Greatest column, ever!

Mar 29, 2010

We live in a very Great Age of Greatness.

Exclamation point.

Consider yourself very greatly lucky, because at no time ever in the whole great course of human history have great things ever been quite so very reliably great, and remarkably, heroically epic and very awesomely great, and greatly, remarkably awesome and quite so heroically epically remarkable as they are at this very great moment in time.

I know this because I read about sports.

I read about sports in this, the Great Age of Exaggeration.

And Exclamation!

A Golden Moment in Time!

In fact, if Charles Dickens were alive today, "A Tale of Two Cities" would likely begin "It was the best of times. Seriously."

So I can say without fear of contradiction or accuracy or proportion that what you are about to read is very likely the Most Important Single Sports Column Ever Written Anywhere By Anyone Since The Invention Of Moveable Type By Steve Gutenberg On The Set Of The Movie "Cocoon" in 1439.

Exclamation point.

Boldface italics underlined.

Read it in full.

 

[LanceyHoward]

Did Solak ever watch Michael Vick play?

There wasn’t a thing—not a damn thing—that he couldn’t do. He ripped open the 53-yard-wide football field to hit windows and angles and cross-body magic tricks never before attempted. He got out of the pocket like none other and, when out of the pocket like none other, dithered like none other, so carefree, waiting for the defense to bend, bend, bend, and break against his gravity, his vision, his right arm’s reach.
​

I think much of the research in modern day sports writing is watching YouTube clips. I have seen a lot of YouTube clips showing greatest plays. Vick was a spectacular athlete and could make some great plays, But I have rarely seen clips of a players lowlights. I think writers get entranced with the highlights and do not realistically analyze a player.

Draft coverage is particularly suspectable to this tendacy.

 

[swingline]

No, that's not what I'm saying. I read most of his piece and it was fine but it lacked.

It also fell victim to MacGregor's GREATEST EVER RIGHT NOW!


Great! Greater! Greatest column, ever!

Mar 29, 2010

We live in a very Great Age of Greatness.

Exclamation point.

Consider yourself very greatly lucky, because at no time ever in the whole great course of human history have great things ever been quite so very reliably great, and remarkably, heroically epic and very awesomely great, and greatly, remarkably awesome and quite so heroically epically remarkable as they are at this very great moment in time.

I know this because I read about sports.

I read about sports in this, the Great Age of Exaggeration.

And Exclamation!

A Golden Moment in Time!

In fact, if Charles Dickens were alive today, "A Tale of Two Cities" would likely begin "It was the best of times. Seriously."

So I can say without fear of contradiction or accuracy or proportion that what you are about to read is very likely the Most Important Single Sports Column Ever Written Anywhere By Anyone Since The Invention Of Moveable Type By Steve Gutenberg On The Set Of The Movie "Cocoon" in 1439.

Exclamation point.

Boldface italics underlined.

Read it in full.

Fourteen years old, and still as relevant today as it was then.