Violence Of Football Analysis

The article “Violence of football is becoming too difficult to justify” written for the Denver Post is titled and written in a way to that demands attention. Attempting an attack on America’s sport is something that will catch the eye of most readers. Groothuis writes for a sympathetic audience all the while using pathos as a guide to convince any reader, the author also crosses the line as he tries poisoning the well for any new, and inexperienced football fan. The NFL is a multi-billion dollar business, and its business is football. Football has become America’s top sport watched by millions every Sunday from fall to winter. Many opinions are out there as to how safe football and how playing it puts a person at some potential life altering …show more content…
Groothuis relies on pathos for much if not all of this article to get his point across. It is a very effective ploy because after reading this article it would be hard not to feel for the players of this sport and wonder why would anyone want to dedicate time towards something that will guarantee them an injury. You will see this when Groothuis writes “This requires no little mayhem. It is all about taking down opponents, which demands collisions, concussions, contusions, and more.” (Violence). Another example would be when Groothuis writes about a sixteen-year-old making it on the cover of Time magazine and only moments later dying from a traumatic football injury. These writings are out to create emotions in the readers and make them want and demand a safer version of football. In the end, this article does hit all the negative emotional notes but could have again added some positive emotion to allow readers to come to an open-minded conclusion on …show more content…
After reading this article, it feels like he is poisoning the well at the beginning of the article. When the author writes about how violence is at the essence of football, and how many of the injuries are traumatic brain injuries or even fatal it feels like the author places negative thoughts into the reader's mind right off the bat. The author’s point is to pick on all of the negative images of football which again he does rather well, but by not allowing for any positives it does not enable a reader to make their conclusion after reading this article. One could add that this is another appeal to pathos as Groothuis continues his onslaught of digging up negative emotions towards a sport that is so loved in our country. It is a tactic that I feel Groothuis is rather used to using in his