Article Critique #1

ESPN the Magazine – The Book of Life

The article “The Book of Life” immediately stood out to me when I was reading through the ESPN magazine. It is an article that features the ever elusive playbook that NFL teams plan from. It speaks of the importance of this book to the levels of players sleeping with it next to them in bed or locking the playbook in a safe. It also talks about how a coach will take information from a playbook when they leave a team and include it in the playbook of the coach’s new team. This means that each team’s playbook isn’t as original as initially perceived. Each coach does have their own system for calls, signals and formations that make their playbooks unique.

This article is well written and easily understood making it a good read for the general audience. It also gives a sneak peek into NFL life that the fans don’t normally get to see. The sneak peek effect gives off a curiosity that makes it difficult for fans to want to turn away from. All of these factors make it a good read. Also, in the lead the writer does a good job of pulling the audience in by painting a picture of what it would be like to sneak in on the patriots eating breakfast at their stadium and includes some irresistible humor. Then the first paragraph knocks that idea out of the reader’s head by painting the actual picture of the Patriots studying their playbooks. The readers’ attention is already grabbed by the lead, and the story continues with an insight that fans don’t get unless they read or listen to it.

The audience is obviously fans of the NFL. However, the manner in which this story is written could grab the attention of anyone who might be curious about insight that those who get to go behind the scenes gain. The entire story does not follow the Patriots necessarily and I think that the story could have been just as powerful without the mention of them. However, the mention of the Patriots brings in thoughts of the upcoming Super Bowl and adds to the interest by making it relevant to the readers. I would say that this article is newsworthy, but without that tie into the Super Bowl I wouldn’t say that it is timely. What makes this article newsworthy is its ability to connect with its audience in a unique way. I would call this article unique because I haven’t seen many articles that go into dept on the idea of NFL playbooks before.

I think that the story is objective because it doesn’t release any ideas to who might have the best playbook or the best ideas. It also features a handful of teams, although the primary focus does tend to be on the Patriots. As mentioned before, I don’t think that this would be the case without the upcoming Super Bowl. I also don’t think that it leaves any questions unanswered. Instead I think that it opens up the readers’ minds to think differently and maybe raise new questions. These new questions could maybe be answered in a follow up story. I think that a follow up assignment could be to talk about the plays used in the Super Bowl and include more information about the most valuable play with information given by Scouts Inc. Also, it would be interesting to do a follow up story about the scouting that will begin shortly and how moving one player to a different team might affect the playbooks, and if the players have any of there own suggestions in the playbooks. It would be interesting to see what could be cooked up as a follow up piece.

I am sure that I would have written this article differently, only because I have a different way of expressing myself. I do feel that this article was written in simple language and I didn’t have to look anything up to understand it. It also held my attention throughout the entirety of it. I don’t think that I would have any suggestions for this writer. If it held the attention of a girl who had little interest in sport then there isn’t much else that could be done to widen the audience understanding. I guess that perhaps more plays could have been added for those readers who have an advanced understanding of sports, but then it would not have held my attention for long.

I enjoyed the behind the scenes insight that this article offered. In addition to that I enjoyed most of the articles in the ESPN magazine and I’m considering getting a subscription for myself. I feel like I am knowledgeable about a piece of the NFL that I would probably not given a second thought to if I hadn’t read this article. Everyone knows that playbooks are used, but I guess I never thought about the sacredness of a team’s playbook before.