The Twilight Zone of Sportswriting

The first four grafs of this morning’s Washington Post Virginia-Syracuse game story, by Chuck Culpepper:

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Remember that before Virginia won the national championship last spring through the breathless theater of late-game baskets, it typically beat its prey by inviting offenses into some barbed twilight zone until they looked disfigured and then devoured, their plans swirling down the drain in a froth of harried frustration and bad shots.

It was, in a way, an asphyxiation.

Well, what do you know? Virginia christened a frontier of a new season on Wednesday night by inviting Syracuse into the barbed twilight zone until it looked disfigured and then devoured, its plans gone in a froth of harried frustration and bad shots.

The  48-34 outcome was, in a way, an asphyxiation, with the oxygen exiting the Carrier Dome gradually until it went into a full outward rush just before the five-minute mark. That’s when many of the 22,518 in attendance noticed the immovable “28” beneath Syracuse’s name at that time and made droves in departure.

 

Speak Your Mind

*