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Rhetorical Strategies in Gladwell’s “Offensive Play: How Different are Dogfighting and

Football”

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” This famous saying

by American poet Maya Angelou greatly influences the creatives of our generation. Writing,

essentially, enables creatives to lay down this burden of stories needing telling. One such story is

told by a writer, Malcolm Gladwell, through his article “Offensive Play: How Different are

Dogfighting and Football.” The article published in The New Yorker argues that the loved sport

of football is as terrible as the infamous dogfighting events. To this end, Gladwell establishes

credibility for his arguments throughout the text by depending on core rhetoric strategies. The

effective use of credible sources, facts, statistics, and reason enhance the arguments made in the

article.

The article follows the story of a former football player whose experiences both on and

off pitch expose the risks involved in the football profession. Proper detailing of all the situations

around which the footballer operates helps in identifying the predisposing factors that make the

game very risky. Statements like: “I remember…where I’d hit someone so hard that my eyes

went cross-eyed” help the author to indicate the vulnerabilities involved in football (Gladwell,

2019). Gladwell then synthesizes the athlete's narrative to introduce another player of the game

who all had career-related struggles. The quarterback served suspension and arrest as induced by
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his involvement in a dogfighting match. At this point, the article establishes the relationship

between the dogs forced to repeatedly assault each other and football players constantly

headbutting their way through human defences (Gladwell, 2019). The article weaves these sub-

narratives with each other to reveal the overall health risks of playing football. The weaving of

these pieces of evidence is done through active narration by the characters of the article. That is,

football players, family members, and health officers all tell tales about their experiences with

the injuries sustained from football games. Gladwell then triggers the thought of correcting the

constant head injuries in the sport through changing policies and rules (Gladwell, 2019). The

alternative to such changes being abandoning the game entirely.

Nevertheless, Gladwell’s main point is to inform audiences about the impending health

risks present in the game of football. To achieve this, Gladwell employs rhetoric appeals to

convince his audiences of the authenticity of the information. Rhetoric appeals, including ethical

appeal, logical appeal, and pathetic appeal, are tactics that rely on human inclinations and

experiences as a means of persuasion (Houser, 2019, p. 37). First, Gladwell uses reputable

sources and presents quotes from their interviews about their experience on the matter. Such use

of respectable sources to persuade audiences falls under the group of rhetoric appeals known as

ethical appeals. Ethical appeals, also commonly known as ethos, refer to audience’s insight on

the author’s credibility (Houser, 2019, p. 38). Gladwell uses ethical appeal effectively. The use

of professional sources from football, medicine, and research professions adds credibility to the

article and makes it more believable. Direct speeches of Kyle Turley, a retired professional

footballer, for instance, become more believable compared to getting reports on similar

circumstances from the author (Gladwell, 2019). Again, the author uses ethos creatively. That is,

Gladwell informs audiences about the standard autopsy process for patients who had dementia
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and explaining all the technical process in understandable terms. The author’s creativity shows in

letting a credible voice of a neuropathologist, Anne McKee, take over at the most crucial point.

The statement: “…it was one of the most extraordinary damage” sets the stage for audiences to

be ready for an explanation of the essential difference between standard dementia cases and the

extraordinary damages (Gladwell, 2019). This ability to use ethical appeals sparingly when it

mattered most puts priority to the author’s need of informing audiences on the most important

details.

On top of these ethical appeals, Gladwell uses logical appeals to convince audiences of

the information’s authenticity further. Logical appeals also called logos, refers to the use of the

human appreciation of logic to drive persuasion in rhetorics (Bargiela-Chiappini, 2009, p. 69).

Gladwell uses logical appeals by using reason and proofs of the same to convince audiences of

the credibility of the information in his article. First, the author relies on history about the

psychological mishaps former professional footballers have had in the past after retiring from the

career (Gladwell, 2019). As such, the author uses this history to purport that it is very logical that

similar incidents will continue to happen in the football profession. Again, the author relies on

facts about the football game to point towards its risks. Turley states that: “…he knew I was

messed up. That’s what happens in the N.F.L” (Gladwell, 2019). This statement by Turley refers

to the incident of being smashed unconscious during a football game in 2003. The part talking

about ‘that’s what happens in the N.F.L’ is meant to establish the logical appeal that such

incidents are a matter of fact well known by the game professionals. Still, Gladwell uses

statistics to rely on audiences sense of reason. The author mentions the incident of a study of

sixteen former footballers for the occurrence of injury-related Alzheimer’s disease. The results

gained reveal that all of these ex-footballers had injury-related Alzheimer’s disease (Gladwell,
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2019). Statistics of the complete appearance of these incidents show that the lack of any normal

version of this disease, or the lack of it indicates the damage the game does on players. The

author makes audiences understand this logical perspective to appreciate the information

presented.

In addition to logical appeals, Gladwell uses pathetic appeals to persuade audiences of the

need to be informed about the situation. Pathetic appeals, also pathos, depends on audiences’

emotions as a tool for persuasion. Emotions such as anger, sorrow, love, and sympathy all can be

used by an author to persuade audiences. In as much as this is the least used rhetoric appeal,

authors still make good use of it (Killingsworth, 2005, p. 251). In the article, “Offensive Play:

How Different are Dogfighting and Football,” Gladwell introduces the section on dogfighting to

make such a pathetic appeal. The analysis of dogfighting in the article depicts the gruesome

ordeal dogs go through as they battle for people’s amusement. These gruesome details make use

of people’s loving and sympathetic emotions to persuade them on the dangers of this event. Later

on, the dogfighting scene is related to the football experience. The author closely ties this

pathetic appeal to logical appeal. That is, logic helps indicate that Americans hating dogfighting

due to its risks should also hate football as it poses similarly life-threatening risks (Gladwell,

2019). These rhetorics persuade audiences about the information passed and the importance of

being informed about the same.

Gladwell effectively uses rhetorical appeals to persuade audiences about the importance

of being informed about risks footballers face. More specifically, the writer uses logical, ethical,

and pathetic appeals to make a case for his objective of informing people about the dangers

involved in the game. The analysis of Gladwell’s article helps in understanding how rhetorics

can be best prepared. All other works of rhetoric can use strategies used in Gladwell’s article.
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References

Bargiela-Chiappini, F. (2009). Rhetorical analysis. In Handbook of Business Discourse (pp. 68-

79). Edinburgh University Press.

Gladwell, M. (2009, October 11). Offensive play: How different are dogfighting and

football? The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/10/19/offensive-

play

Houser, R. E. (2019). The three rhetorical Appeals. In Logic as a liberal art: An introduction to

rhetoric and reasoning (pp. 35-49). Catholic University of America Press.

Killingsworth, M. J. (2005). Rhetorical Appeals: A Revision. Rhetoric Review, 24(3), 249-

263. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327981rr2403_1