Words That Sportswriters Use That Make Me Cringe

Another one overused is “the suspect fled on foot.” What’s wrong with “ran away?”

 

Also irritating in a coverage area where there are multiple hospitals: "He was taken to THE hospital."

 

I want to say that's a British deal. The kind of usage that has become commonplace from the culture's absorption of period dramas.

"He went to court" = not too dissimilar.
"He went to university" = not too dissimilar.
"I spent my weekend at bar" instead of "I spent my weekend at a bar" is where it gets tricky.

 

Because he couldn't get away.

 

Nothing more irritating than the British-rooted "went missing".

 

Did they run?

 

One of the bigger shifts in sportswriting is the adoption of coach-y jargon designed to tell, well, the coaches how smart you are. And perhaps your colleagues. The readers often have far more basic - and, sometimes, more accurate - views of the sport.

 

The stadium is located on Dump That Word Avenue.

 

Running grip-and-grin photos is bad enough, but they often have cutlines such as this:

"Opal Smith, Bertha Jones and Gertrude Jenkins present a check in the amount of $50 to the Podunk Humane Society ..."

"Donate $50" works for me.

 

"a single [usually with] gunshot wound" ... "a gunshot wound"
"hospitalized with multiple injuries" ... "hospitalized with injuries" [plural tells us it's multiple]
"dates back to" ... "dates to"
"burned down to the ground" ... "burned to the ground"

I could spend hours on this sort of thing.