1
Bearden
Geoffrey Bearden
Ms. Jackman
Persuasive Writing
12 September 2017
Assignment #3
The blog that I choose to analyze was a blog titled “Could Alabama Beat the New England Patriots?” by PFT Commenter on the popular sports blog Barstool Sports. Obviously the author, PFT, was not serious when he wrote this blog. PFT is the co anchor of the popular podcast, “Pardon My Take”, presented by Barstool Sports. The podcast is a sports podcast that uses satire to talk about the current news in sports. I have been a big fan of the podcast since they started since I have been following Barstool, and the other anchor Big Cat for almost five years now. PFT is writing this article to highlight how poorly the best team in the NFL played, and how well the best team in college football played. PFT takes stats from both teams to try and highlight his ridiculous claim. One is that Tom Brady had the lowest passing completion percentage of all starting quarterbacks in the NFL week one. Two Alabama alumni played this week, both having better passing statistics then Tom Brady. PFT also questions the Patriots Dynasty claim. He uses the example of “dynasty” in ancient China. In the words of PFT, in ancient China, a dynasty had to, “you had to at least be able to defend your home territory that’s why they built the wall.” He claims since the Patriots have not repeated championships in over 10 years, they are only a team with long stretched success, rather than a dynasty. Alabama have repeated multiple times in the past ten years, which makes them a better team, in PFT’s eyes. PFT also highlights the fact that Alabama has many first round draft picks on their team, while the Patriots have none. This argument, again, is not a legitimate argument, rather laugh out loud funny. Alabama has many talented players on their roster this season, meaning many of them will in fact be drafted in the first round this up coming draft. The Patriots have not had a pick in the first round the past two seasons. PFT is connecting with true football fans here with this take. He clearly knows that this fact is not supposed to be serious, but rather try and bother patriot’s fans. His comedy genius toys with the popular fact that the patriots can win with anyone. He uses a completely irrelevant fact to support that Alabama is a better football team, with “more talent” to produce hilarious satire. The last point PFT tries to use to prove that The University of Alabama is a more talented football team then The New England Patriots is that all of the Wide Receivers on Alabama actually play wide receiver. On the Patriots, their arguably best wide receivers played quarter back and lacrosse in college. Alabama’s wide receivers are top recruits in the country, who were better then 95% of the players in the country during their high school career. PFT knows how talented the Patriots wide receivers are, but again is trying to use this fact as a tool of satire. The point he makes almost makes sense though. Statistically, Chris Hogan and Julian Edelman should have no success in the NFL due to their background, and Alabama’s Wide Receivers should excel with any competition. PFT Commenter is famous for saying, “stats are for nerds” and he plays with that idea here in his analysis. In conclusion, this blog is not supposed to be serious in anyway, and actually make fun of popular cable sports programs (like Sportscenter) that will actually talk about this debate seriously following the Patriots blow out.