Words That Sportswriters Use That Make Me Cringe

Lid-lifter

 

See this more with SIDs than sportswriters...

Would.

"Joe Smith would go on to score twice more."
"State U. would force two more turnovers in the second half."

Joe Smith scored. State U. forced.

Burn would to the ground.

 

"Explosive plays." There had better be EOD or a GI specialist on duty. Big plays. Maybe even game-changing plays. But not "explosive plays."

Active voice. Always active voice. Some SIDs can be a bit ... passive.

 

Any use of coachspeak, such as "Cover 2 defense," "He's a 5," ect., flies past most readers unless you explain it.

 

High-schooler, and yeah, I used it too many times in my day.

 

Use of “The plus adjective” to replace a name kind of drives me nuts.

“The Podunk native” “The ex-Florida standout.”

I get it, its an info dump and it stops you from having Jones or a pronoun in 10 sentences in a row. Pet peeve

 

"new" world record (redundant)
signage (instead of signs)
cagers and hoopsters
ironically (instead of coincidentally)
But one of the most grating is the improper use of "trifecta" which means 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, -- not three of something.

 

Using "freshman" or "sophomore" to describe a rookie or second-year professional athlete. No, NASCAR does not have a four-year graduation requirement so that driver is not a sophomore. Chances are, he's probably not even a high school graduate.

 

Product.

Joe Smith is a product of Podunk High School.

Makes him sound like he's a piece of meat.

 

I don’t think I’ve ever seen “cagers” used anywhere except SJ.com where it’s always an example of what not to do.

I don’t spend much time reading preps coverage these days, though.

 

Edge rusher I get because it describes ends as well as OLBs who are tasked with sacking the QB. I do love that hoops has boiled the positions from G, F and C to PG, SG, SF, PF and C and is now just 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

 

Bigs. “Now they have a true big.”