Alexandra Laylor 

Professor Kylee Pastore 

FIQWS Fairytale 10105

13 December 2022

Rhetorical Analysis Essay 

In this article entitled, “Yes, the Players in the World Cup Do Keep Falling Over for No Reason,” David Papineau, the author, reports on the reality of the World Cup. David Papineau is a British philosophy professor of Science at King College University. He has over 75 works published to his name, some of which are academic papers, essays, articles, and books. Some of his work, such as “The Nature and Value of Sport,”: a philosophical essay published in Oxford University Press, and a book entitled, Knowing the Score, published in 2017, links his knowledge of philosophy and its problems to the truths and issues in regards to sporting events. His well-established understanding of matters of the sporting world, and his work being published in places like The New York Times and Oxford University Press, marks him as a credible author to write this piece on the World Cup. 

    Papineau’s target audience would be considered as people who watch sporting events like football (or soccer as Americans call it ) and players of different types of sports, but more so the people who are new to the world of watching sporting events. In his article, Papineau can be seen addressing his audience when he states that “Indeed, spectators new to football are likely to find these histrionics hard to stomach,” here he indicates the idea of considering new viewers’ thoughts on being exposed to the players’ antics in the World Cup.

    Papineau wrote this article in a way in which he is descriptive, well-informed, and disapproving, which carries into the tone of the entire piece. This can be observed when he uses the show-not-tell description to create a vivid image for his audience to show how the players are acting, like when he says things like, ‘throws himself to the ground,’ ‘writhes around in mock agony,’ ‘grabbing a body part.’ He also shows how knowledgeable he is on different sporting topics, like when he states, “Basketball players happily commit blatant fouls to stop the clock. Football coaches call time out to “ice” the kicker (in theory, to put more pressure on the kicker’s field goal attempt). Hockey players … season.” Near the end, Papineau lightly admonishes the players for their behavior in hopes of them recognizing that their cheap deception is a way in which they are degrading themselves. 

    Papineau’s purpose for this piece is to indicate to his audience that while sports viewers should understand that different types of sports from other parts of the world have different morals and codes for which they do things; however, there is a level of morality that the games and its players are held by, and some players tend to bypass it, ruining the integrity of the game. This is evident when he mentions that “But maybe this is just a parochial reaction to unfamiliar conduct. After all, people arrange their lives differently in different parts of the world. We should take care not to conflate the strange with the immoral.”

Sports, in particular, provide ample demonstration that actions that are acceptable in one context can seem objectionable in another,” coupled with him also stating that “In sports, as in wider society, many different conventions…of morality,” and also “Athletes who use tricks…simply trading on trust to take advantage.”

    The genre of this piece falls under an opinion article published in The New York Times–which is the medium. An opinion article allows authors to express their views on a particular subject. This article does not have a fixed structure; it more so, follows the flow of the author’s thoughts and ideas.

    The medium, as mentioned earlier, is The New York Times, a well-known newspaper, and Papineau’s piece was originally posted on the online version. However, a physical copy of the article can be seen in a printed copy of the newspaper.   

    Since this piece was published on December 6, 2022, around the time of the 22nd FIFA World Cup, taking place in Qatar, the timeliness of Papineau’s article could not have been more impeccable. 

    With this piece being posted in a well-known American newspaper, such as The New York Times, it will be held to high standards by most Americans, and it is expected to be well executed.

    Papineau has both a positive and negative outlook on the World Cup, where he discerns that different sports from different countries have different ways of doing things and that people must respect and accept that, but also that players of these same sporting events take things out of hand and ruin the game when they act immorally. 

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