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Offensive Play

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Offensive Play
Josh Brown
RDG 093
November 27, 2012 The author of the article, “Offensive Play” is Malcolm Gladwell. He is a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and has published four books. “Offensive Play” was published in the October 19th, 2009 edition. The New Yorker began February 21, 1925, and is now published forty-seven times annually. It focuses on arts, culture, politics, sports, medicine, etc. Anything enticing the wealthy, middle-class and metropolitan is what it is geared towards. In addition, it has also won many awards. I believe that The New Yorker is up to date because the year 2009 was not too long ago for a great deal of information to supersede what we now know. Mr. Gladwell did not have a “pre-set” perspective on things because he gives you clear facts about the article “Offensive Play” and the dangers of football, so we can read it with an open mind and figure out what to do. The intended audience for “Offensive Play” was for doctors’ for research, fans and athletes. This article seemed to have a good balance aimed towards the population in general because it gives you background information on researchers, the injuries involved, the sport, and what it is we can do. Obviously, Mr. Gladwell had a clear motive to write this article. He wanted to let the public know the dangers of the National Football League, and what illnesses develop in former players’ so perhaps, we can think of ways to make it safer. “Offensive Play” was written to inform you of the dangers of the N.F.L. Mr. Gladwell gives us both sides of the topic; how it’s dangerous to play, but there are things that can be done to improve the health and overall wellbeing of the players’. I didn’t feel an emotional punch from reading this article; although, it did make me more aware of the effects of playing the sport. In the article, “Offensive Play” by Malcolm Gladwell, the author argues that, researchers’ are studying the brains’ of former football players’ to examine the

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