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How do you tell a story that’s essentially been told over and over again? That is the trouble for reporters who are assigned to write about the release of a book by Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy, who is as consistent as anyone when it comes to expressing the important things in his life.
Amid the mania earlier this week surrounding the move of the David Beckham family from Europes to the United States is a quiet religion ghost that reporters ought to take a look at.
You all remember that spat involving the Washington Nationals and religion in the fall of 2005 when the team’s chapel leader seemed to agree that Jewish people are headed to hell because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as their savior? The controversy ignited after comments from team Chaplain Jon Moeller were published in a rather excellent Washington Post feature on the Bible in baseball.
After I posted Tim Townsend’s story on Christian Family Day at St. Louis’ Busch Stadium, a few readers sent along an article on baseball and Santeria. Los Angeles Times sportswriter Kevin Baxter penned a thorough and engaging account of the rise of Santeria practice among Major League players from Latin America:
Anyone who knows anything about life in the USA knows that one of our strongest forms of civic religion is Christian football.
Reader FzxGkJssFrk (is that his birth name, I wonder?), passed along a piece from ESPN’s Jemele Hill about National Football League rookie Terreal Bierria. The article is rather interesting but the reader noticed something amiss in this passage:
If I were queen of the world, I’d forbid reporters from using any variation of the they’re just like you and me theme for stories. It’s bad enough when Us Weekly does it with a photo package of celebrities shopping and walking their dogs. But when mainstream reporters do it, it’s embarrassing.
There is an old media theory saying that effective advertisements are like small sermons. They show people struggling with a problem and then they claim to show a solution to that problem.
In predictable fashion, the Indianapolis Colts sloppily walked all over the Chicago Bears last night and Colts head coach Tony Dungy gave God the credit for the win. The big question for us here at GetReligion is not whether Rex Grossman should be allowed to remain in the National Football League, but how and when the media should highlight Dungy’s comments.
