This weekend, football made its return for the 2020 season when the Kansas City Chiefs kicked off the regular season at home against the Houston Texans. That Thursday Night showdown lead us into an action packed Sunday with a full slate of football. Before the season started though, the San Francisco 49ers practiced in an “apocalyptic state.”
On September 9, an ESPN staff writer, Nick Wagoner, wrote an article about the terrible air quality that the 49ers had to practice in. The article was released by ESPN NFL Insider and Reporter, Adam Schefter on Twitter.
The piece mainly centered around the horrible air quality that the 49ers have been dealing with since the middle of August. The wild fires have been surging through California for what seems like forever now, and since August 21, the 49ers have had discussions about their practice and play.
The NFL has a rule that if a game is not allowed to begin play if the air quality reaches 200 or above. On the practice field, the 49ers had the number hit as high as 160, but the Wednesday before kickoff, it was at a 69, but it did not look that way.
Although a shorter article, I enjoyed reading it. The reason I chose to use this one was because of how interesting it actually was. Head coach of the 49ers, Kyle Shanahan, said that this picture is deceiving as the air quality was only 69 during this picture.
But as the old saying goes, “a picture can tell a 1,000 words,” and I think this picture does that. The picture was a crucial piece to the article because some readers would not be able to comprehend how bad the situation actually was.
For me personally, without that picture, I would not know how bad everything was, so the picture was paramount. As mentioned earlier, the California wild fires have devastated the state for months, but for those who don’t live in California, they wouldn’t know. I think this article helps outsiders, like myself, better understand what the state of California is going through.
Wagoner did a great job writing this piece and although it wasn’t a long one he hit on everything he needed to. He was short, concise, and to the point. He let the readers know what was going on with the 49ers and the air quality situation and he got quotes from the coach to update the readers and fans about how the team is handling the situation.
An overall nice piece.
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