Joe Madden Retires

As John Madden retires this morning, I found a very interesting article on him on the Sports Illustrated website, which is networked by CNN. The first point I'd like to make about the article that drew my attention was the anecdote used in the first six or seven paragraphs. At first, I was left wondering where the story was going to connect with the body, which was Madden retiring, but when the anecdote finished and the writer connected it with his retirement, I sat back thinking what a great attention grabber that was. The one thing about this long anecdote, however, that left me a bit confused was whether or not it was too long? The heart of the story was not reached until well into the article, yet the story continued to hold my attention. I found this to be very interesting.

Another differentn point I noticed about this article entitled Madden's legend in NFL unmatched was that because it was online it was much more opinionated that articles which we read in the newspaper. The writer, Peter King, expressed his feelings towards Madden's retirement quite freely and at one point seemed to PR for NBC despite the fact that when he does this, he makes note of it right after in the article. This challenged my mind to think alot as well.

Lastly, Peter King is an NFL writer for NBC, so why was his article posted on the Sports Illustrated website which is run by CNN?

Don't mistake my criticism and questions for negativity; I greatly enjoyed this article and it helped me to truly visualize and internalize the difference between online writing and newspaper writing. We discussed this difference in class and our book also covered a whole chapter on it, but seeing it had much more of an impact than reading about it from someone else.

I encourage everyone to take a look at this article and note the anecdote and how it led into the story as well as the difference between this and an article in a print newspaper.