Rhetorical Analysis Of Curtis Martin's Hall Of Fame Speech

Louie DeRosa Mrs. Grillo 10H: 5 14 April 2023 Curtis Martin and the Greatest NFL Speech Curtis Martin is considered one of the best running backs in NFL history. He is fourth in total rushing yards and tying for first, second, or third in most other records. He is known for being an electric player on the field and a good man off the field but primarily to fellow players and people as giving the greatest Hall of Fame speech in the history of the Hall of Fame. Bleacher Report had their point of view on the speech in which they stated, “Most of these Hall of Fame speeches are all too similar. A former great player shines some light on his career, says some touching words about their mentors and family, and thanks everyone from the fans to their
He presents the statistics of his career by creating jokes about his position and the number of yards he ran. One of the jokes said, “I'm up here because of how many yards I ran. Everyone who knows me also knows that I hate to run. I don't like to run at all.” (Martin) Ironically, he hates running since the only purpose of a “running” back is to run with the ball. He even jokes about how everyone knows why he is here and that it is because of how many yards he ran. He trunks his stats into jokes rather than talking about them and boasting about them, which makes the crowd love it and even builds trust with the ethos component. Rhetoric devices play a big part in what makes this speech so good. Speech cannot just use ethos, pathos, or logos without including rhetorical devices. The main one used by Curtis Martin is the Anecdote. An anecdote is when someone tells a story and Martin does a lot of that for the majority of his speech when talking about his childhood. For example, he says “Let me tell you how I got started playing”. Martin: Now this in itself is not the anecdote but it is the start of one, it is the lead-in for the story he is about to tell which goes to talk about his abusive father and bad