Bob Ryan is an acclaimed American sportswriter who is now retired after 44 years of working as a columnist at The Boston Globe and a sports commentator on ESPN. Ryan’s career initially began focused on the Boston area but eventually expanded to sports throughout the world. Ryan attempts to entertain and enlighten his audience as well as offer his own opinion on current sports issues and topics. In his columns, Ryan combines obscure yet interesting facts with anecdotal-like storytelling woven with personal experiences to create compelling arguments on prominent news in the sports world. Modern day sports fanatics, along with everyday sports fans are drawn into sports for a multitude of reasons, yet are ceaselessly impressed by the astounding …show more content…
They are the 15th Catholic school to reach the stage we now know as the Final Four. And they are the seventh Jesuit school to do so” (Final Four…..). Ryan uses these little-known facts, not as a fundamental part of his column, but as an attention keeper to his sports-loving audience. The audience of Ryan’s columns are more involved than the average sports fan, looking for more implications a single game could have outside of who wins and who loses. Including this fact engages the audience into the column by giving them another implication and something to root for or against in the upcoming games. Ryan attempts to prod his audience to “root unabashedly for Gonzaga” (final four….), by using the low number of appearances to move the audience to obligated to root for Gonzaga's success. He specifically points out that there have only been fifteen15 Catholic schools in order to make Gonzaga seem like an underdog causing the audience to root for their success. Another way Ryan develops an effective argument is by using these facts to provoke excitement in his audience. He uses this technique while …show more content…
Although he does use his own stories to help defend his claims, Ryan has the ability to present stories and opinions of situations he is not involved in as if they were his own personal anecdotes. While discussing the monstrosity that the Olympics have become in recent years Ryan states, “This Olympic fiasco does once again illustrate the Bob Ryan Rule; namely, ‘There is nothing good in life that won’t get screwed up.’ Although I usually substitute another verb” (Boeheim….). Ryan has observed, for multiple years, the debates about where the Olympics will be hosted, and that no city is extremely excited to host them. He draws upon what he has been observing and connects it to areas he has seen in other sports, implying that this will not bode well for the Olympics. By making the audience feel like Ryan is directly involved, and that his experience and what he has observed is telling him that the Olympics are going downhill, makes the audience much more likely to agree with him. Ryan uses his credibility and experience to further his argument that something needs to be changed in order for the Olympics to become as great as they were once in the past. In addition to developing his arguments, Ryan is able to use his personal experiences to introduce intriguing facts for his audience. When discussing his Final Four predictions, Ryan