The super bowl. More precisely the 49’ers, even more specifically, none other than the kid protegee himself Kyle Shanahan. Shanahan has come under fire lately for losing Super Bowl 54 to the Kansas city Chiefs. ( Believe it or not, it’s not located in Kansas, get out your sharpies ) Why talk about it any further? You aren’t a credible football player/analyst… calm down carol, I know this. That’s why I will finagle this into a blog post about the rhetorical situation incurred by this headline flowing through the river that is sports talk show. Bitzer defined a rhetorical situation by the characteristics of how discourse was created by the speaker. In this case the speaker will be any ESPN news analyst. Whether it’s Max Kellerman, Or Stephen A. Smith.
First off we have to look at exigence, what makes this a debatable topic. Well Football being arguably the biggest sport in America means that is always a hot button topic, and seeing as that the super bowl draws in massive amounts of views, it will inevitably be talked about. To be more specific to the situation, people love to place blame, the person blamed for this loss being Kyle Shanahan. Which can lead to even more debate, because how does a coach lose a game? How does the #1 ranked defense losing a 10 point lead with 9 minutes left in the fourth quarter not get blamed? The list goes on, and on.
The audience for this situation would be all the people who tune in to watch these broadcast, on whatever platform they so choose. In this case it would be more focused on those that are there to learn more about the super bowl. These platforms, like ESPN, use analyst to create discourse with their takes on the game, and try to persuade other analyst to their reasoning; No doubt having an impact on the listener.
There are many constraints to the pull of the discourse. To begin with many shows are set up with multiple analyst with different views that bash at times. Such as Stephen A, saying that the super bowl was lost due to Shanahan’s lack of time management, passive offensive gameplan, and his inability to win against good coaches. (Shanahan was the Falcons offensive coordinator when they lost a 28-3 lead to Bill Belichick a few years earlier) While Max Kellerman defends Shanahan for his playcalling, saying that it’s not his fault but the players lack of aggression closing out the game, and the lack luster performance of their star QB. Before you even can consider these points, and offer up your newfound opinion on the cause, you have to be receptive to the idea. People love certain teams, or players, so they will be less receptive of blaming Jimmy if he’s their favorite player. Or if your a Chiefs fan you’d say it was just because the Chiefs are better; If you’re a 49’ers fan it could have been the refs, or dirty players on the other team.
With so many different opportunities for bias it’s almost impossible to stay impartial to the situation. If we were all perfect individuals, and versed in rhetoric, we would understand that this situation has no clear cut answer. Like many situations it is far to complex to be nailed down to one single entity. So breath easy Mr. Shanahan, you’ll live to blow another game. =)
ENG-4610 Joseph Villella 