Summary Of Atheletes By Will Leitch

In this article, Will Leitch elaborates on how he believes we expect too much from atheletes because they are believed to be “super human” when in reality they are nowhere similar to the high expectations we put up for them in our head. He justifies his thinking with the example of ,the well known tennis star, Gaël Monfils. “One of the greatest players of all time, begged for help. The surface temperature on the court registered at 69 degrees Celsius, or 156 degrees Fahrenheit” (Will Leitch, 2). He also goes off on how watching our heroes in bad conditions not only affects how well the atheletes can perform in such situations it also puts others in danger as well. He uses the example of the 1969 superbowl otherwise known as “the infamous

Ice Bowl” by saying “After whistling for kickoff, the referee Norm Schachter realized that his whistle was stuck to his lips; when he tried to remove it, the skin ripped from his mouth…. A fan in the stands died. This was not football. This was simply a bunch of men trying not to freeze to death.” Which according to him makes no sense because, he believes people come watch sports for the entertainment, not to walk out of the stadium on the edge of death. In conclusion, Seeing which one doesn’t die first doesn’t really tell us about who was the better team. To support such a statement, Will Leitch uses a metaphor saying “We all have our reasons for watching sports, but at the forefront of mine is watching incredible athletes do incredible things. They do things we cannot, and it is magical.” This metaphor could as well have been the conclusion because it did such a good job summarizing the main point of the article. The rhetorical device is an analogy betwenn the two tennis players and the nfl game. He used ethos in the end when he said the beuty is in the performance not the obstacles that surround it.I agree with his idealism, I wouldn’t want to watch anybody do anything that could possibly risk their lives, we watch sports because we would like to see them do spectacular feats that we couldn’t possibly do. But if they play just as bad as the average player would why waste your time watching them. However I feel as if he could have brought up a solution or two in order to seal it down.