Evaluating Sally Jenkins' Article Does Football Cost Too Much

23 April 2013

Arguing for Overpriced Football Tickets?

In her article “Does Football Cost Too Much,” the author, Sally Jenkins, argues that football games are worth the overpriced prices. Not written like a traditional article, where the argument is made in the beginning of her article, Jenkins strategically states her argument at the end of her article. She spends the beginnings of her article questioning her argument. The body of her article includes evidence from her own experience at a football game, during which she compares the entertainment value to the price of the experience.

Jenkins argumentative paper, which argues for overpriced football game tickets rather than against them, is strategically and efficiently structured. In the beginning of her article, Jenkins strategically does not state her argument, but instead acknowledges the other side. In her first paragraph Jenkins writes, “But in order to enjoy it, fans need to dig deep into their wallets—make that bank accounts. While the average cost of attending an NFL game for four is $416.64, it’s a staggering $758.58 to watch a Cowboys.” This statement goes against her argument, yet has a strong logical appeal. Since Jenkins forces her readers to think directly about the amount of money that is spent at football games, the impact of the logos on the audience is strong in her first paragraph. The reader is getting thrown into her paper using their logical discretion.

Jenkins argues her point in her thirteen body paragraphs, where she convinces her audience to disregard their logical discretion by appealing to the readers’ pathos. Jenkins makes an appeal on logos only when she mentions evidence that favors her opposing viewpoint. However, she strongly appeals to pathos when she presents evidence that is in favor of her argument. In a sense, Jenkins strategy for arguing her point is through the creation an arena, where the readers’ logical reasoning is challenged by their emotional appeal. Though it may seem that logical appeal would be stronger than an emotional appeal, Jenkins does an excellent job putting up a fight for the emotional. Since she spends the begins of her articles acknowledging the logical arguments that the opposing view point makes, she uses the rest of article to distract the readers’ logical senses through the appeals of the readers emotions. In her article she writes, “On my first view of the area, it seemed worth the money I’d spent. Truly awe-inspiring, Cowboys Stadium is NFL’s largest dome, with the capacity of 110,000. Two steel arches lunge into the sky over massive blocks of white stone and green glass.” In this statement, Jenkins presents that the logic behind her argument is not, in fact, logical at all, but rather an emotional argument. She invites the reader to feel what she feels. With the intent to appeal to the reader’s imagination, she is strategically descriptive of the football game throughout her article. In her ninth paragraph, Jenkins writes, “David, a contractor