Leave Nothing

This new Nike commercial has been played throughout the 2007 football season thus far. As a football fan, I can't help but get chills everytime I see it. As a student of rhetoric, I can't help but notice the blatant use of pathos that elicit strong feelings towards the sport of football. The music in the background is from the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack, and as LT, Shawn Merriman, and Antonio Gates plow down the field through other players and the elements, the rhythmic battle music crescendos, growing in intensity. As the featured players hit other players, the noise of the hit and heavy breathing conveys how hard they are working; this is the only language spoken in the entire commercial. The dramatic cutoff at the end of the commercial shows the audience that leaving it all on the field means everything; not that winning doesn't matter, but that the players on the field should be emulated and honored for leaving nothing behind, much as we do our battle heroes. Considering our nation's out and out obsession with the sport, I'm actually considering exploring the use of rhetoric in football and its related propaganda for my final project.