The home run that won a World Series game; a last-second touchdown that won a major college bowl game; a sprinter who lunged to break the tape and win by a millisecond. They often furnish sports writers ideal leads but the sports writer must watch and recognize the “big play” when it occurs.
As a football game, an Olympic event, or a baseball game is in progress, sports writers must make mental notes regarding the lead to the story. A big play lead may present itself; the sports writer needs to recognize it when it takes place.
John Ferro of the Gannett News Service uses a key play a missed field goal to begin his story of the 1993 Army-Navy game. (Note: In any game story, the names of the teams, where the game was played, and the score should all be somewhere in the top three paragraphs. Other items, such as a key play or the weather, if it was a factor, should also be in the lead.)
The Navy football team could not have gotten much closer. Just one yard from the goal line, the Midshipmen were achingly close to a come-from-behind victory over Army, the Commander In Chief’s trophy and a chance to honor a fallen teammate.
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But the weightiest of moments fell on the shoulders of a freshman kicker with just two attempts in his career. And so it was that Ryan Bucchianeri’s 18-yard field goal try with six seconds remaining sailed wide right and gave Army a 16-14 victory before ‘67,852 at Giants Stadium Saturday.
The key to a game may not necessarily be a play on the field. Here Leonard Laye, writing for The Charlotte Observer, uses a key halftime event as the lead to a story about a Louisville-University of Minnesota basketball game, from late March 1994:
At half-time, his team trailing Minnesota by a dozen points, Louisville coach Denny Crum zipped into the locker room and headed straight for Clifford Rozier.
“Coach just asked me to do one thing. He begged me to do it,” said Rozier, an All-America center. “He said, ‘Son, we can’t win if you keep forcing things.’ Rozier got the message, albeit along with some very un-All-America stats. And the Cardinals got a 60-55 victory Sunday in Arco Arena, earning a spot in the NCAA Midwest Regional semifinals Thursday in Los Angeles.