Hidden Intellectualism Gerald Graff Analysis

In “Hidden Intellectualism” composed by Gerald Graff, Graff argues how sports play a big part in the intellectual world because they contain components ranging from debates to evaluations, to intellectual systems. He states how sports made him a more intellectual being, and how schools should consider sports intellectual. Gerald Graff’s arguments that sports build intellectualism are ineffective because he lacks outside arguments, and backup to make his argument more credible.
Graff states that sports build up intellectualism and that you don’t have to be book smart to start being intellectual. While he was already book smart, he believes he began his journey as an intellectual from sports alone. This author directly stated “Though I too thought I did not “dig the intellectual bit,” I see now that I was unwittingly training for it” (Graff 383). Graff connected his sporting to brain training. He has no outside argument to deny how sports make somebody intellectual. He goes on and says “I see now that in the interminable analysis of sports teams...that the real toughs would never have stooped to - I was already betraying an allegiance to the egghead world. I was practicing being an intellectual before I knew that was
He believes “Sports is only one of the domains whose potential for literacy training (and not only for males) is seriously underestimated by educators, who see sports as competing with academic development rather than a route to it” (Graff 385). Not once does Graff give evidence of educators speaking of how sports compete with academic development. This makes Graff’s argument ineffective. Graff attempts to bring educators into the argument, without actually bringing them into the argument. Also, Graff never brings in outside support of these particular beliefs into his argument. Without support for his broad arguments, Graff’s arguments seem more opinionated than