When writing for a major news source, details are important to a story. Early on in reporting class in college, I was taught how to structure the details of a news story. Important/general, eye-catching items go at the top. Not-so-important, filler info items go at the bottom. It's called an inverted pyramid structure.
That in mind, there was an article this afternoon on ESPN.com that caught my eye. I started reading at the top...In summary, this past weekend, a football coach (Mike Singletary) was trying to motivate his team (the San Francisco 49ers) during a halftime speech. To emphasize his point that the 49ers were having their tails whipped, Singletary pulled down his pants. Hmm, ok. I appreciate knowing that, John Clayton, senior writer for ESPN and football Hall-of-Fame writer. Now, what else is going on in sports...
"Singletary was wearing boxers."
Whoa! Whoa!! Where'd that come from? But I kid you not. That was the second to last line of the article. By putting that line in there, John, you're telling me that Singletary wearing boxers actually has some impact on this story. That's like telling me there was cheese on the pretzel Bush, Jr., choked on! That the child Michael Jackson dangled was wearing pampers!
I know baseball is now over for the year, but to me that came straight out of left field.
1 comment:
...? I'm a little confused--isn't the fact that he was wearing boxers supposed to be reassuring because it means that what he did was slightly less crass than it could have been?
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