Griffel Lambastes Crowds Unfairly

I must confess I am very disappointed in your choice to publish the recent article by David S. Griffel ("And The Band Played On (II)," sports column, Oct. 13, 1994). "The crowd stinks," and "the fans are...LAME" are some of the first phrases that jumped out at me when I read the article. Given that 712,880 people attended Saturday's tough loss to Cornell," wouldn't you consider it a bit pompous for one newspaper columnist to call them "LAME?"

If, as I suspect, the article, was meant to encourage football fans to become more animated, it was poorly executed. An appeal to a large crowd should not be prefaced by insulting it, by calling it "LAME", Polite rhetoric is not a difficult achievement if the time is taken to marshal your arguments and present them in a civilized manner. Aside from Mr. Griffel's bitter demeanor, his prose was horrendous. If I were to read the column out loud, it may sound correct. I would expect from a newspaper, however, articles which are more firmly grounded in proper English written style. Not once in the entire article could I find a paragraph with more than two complete sentences, As a result, the column read more like a barrage of accusations rather than an essay or informative article.

Finally, I should point out that this article, no matter how poorly written or how caustic, does not belong on the sports page. In the interests of a better newspaper, please organize the editorials onto the editorial page. --Stacy A. Friedman, '96