Wikipedia:Peer review/Birmingham Americans/archive1

Birmingham Americans

This peer review discussion has been closed.
I've listed this article for peer review because I'd like this to be certified as a Good Article and, with your help and guidance, as a Featured Article in the near future.

Thanks, Dravecky (talk) 05:57, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

Brianboulton comments:-

• One disambiguation link: Scrimmage
  •  Done. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• The non-free use rationale for the ticket image appears to relate to the logo rather than the image.

✗ Not done: I'd appreciate any guidance to more proper wording for the fair-use rationale for this image, included both for its historical interest and to illustrate the organizational errors made by the new team, as noted in the cited text of the caption. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• Lead
  • Words such as "upstart" and "ill-fated" are a little provocative. Do you have a sources for these terms? If they are your own, I would recommend not using them (WP:POV).
    • upstart: The ESPN article "The apex of the World Football League", cited several times in the article, begins, "If you're interested in upstart football leagues, you've likely been enjoying this fall." The phrasing is used in dozens of news reports about the WFL and other challengers to the NFL over the last four decades. (For example a 2009 article in The Star-Ledger about the new UFL noted, "Upstart football leagues, both renegade and developmental, have been crashing and burning for years. The World Football League failed in the 70s, the United States Football League failed in the 80s and Vince McMahon's XFL failed in 2001 after its inaugural season." The exact phrase is used in dozens of reliable news sources including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Toronto Star, Boston Herald, Chicago Tribune, and many more.
    • ill-fated: The NFL's summary of the documentary Lost Treasures: The World Football League says "The World Football League - NFL Films takes a long look back at the World Football League (1974-75), the ambitious, but ill-fated endeavor that lasted only a season and a half before disappearing forever." and contemporary reports from reliable sources including United Press International, the Associated Press,, and the Toledo Blade. A 1978 Chicago Tribune article behind a pay-wall uses the exact phrase "that ill-fated '75 season".
    •  Done: I've added citations to the article to reflect this usage in reliable sources. Also, I've removed "ill-fated" from the lede and added it, with citation, to the "Loss of franchise" section. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • "Most of the team's assets were seized to pay back taxes and failed lawsuits to recover the signing bonus money kept the team in the headlines long after the WFL was itself defunct." The "and" conjunction is inappropriate, since the two halves of the sentence are unconnected. Suggest replace "and" with a semicolon.
    •  Done. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• Franchise history
  • Is it "Alabama Football, Inc." as per the lead, or "the Alabama Football, Inc. as here?
    •  Done. The extra 'the' was a typo, a remnant from an earlier draft that said simply "the team" instead of "Alabama Football, Inc.". - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • Final sentence of first paragraph looks as though it should begin: "However, ..."
    •  Done. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • "Forty-two-year-old retired professional basketball player and former Atlanta Hawks head coach Richie Guerin was selected by Birmingham in the last round of that draft." Does this mean that the team hired a 42-year-old ex-basketball player as a footballer?
    •  Done. I've rewritten this sentence for clarity. Guerin was drafted, presumably as a joke, but apparently never signed with nor played for the Birmingham Americans. When American pro sports drafts were larger than they are now, it was not uncommon for pro sports team owners to use a late-round pick on a friend, relative, pet, or other novelty for ego, publicity, or to make some point. The cited AP story notes "there were laughs" when Guerin was drafted in the final round and it was almost certainly some combination of humor, attention-seeking, and fandom that drove the selection. And while Guerin was head coach of the Atlanta Falcons for nine years and Bill Putnam, majority owner of the team, was an Atlanta resident, I don't have reliable sourcing for Putnam's specific motivations. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • Last sentence of second para: is this information relevant to this article?
    •  Done I do believe that this is relevant to the history of the Americans, especially given their labor, legal, and financial troubles but the sentence would be a far better fit in the "1974 season" section than the "Franchise history" section. Moved. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• First half perfection
  • Not sure that this heading is suitable - it has a "sports journal" rather than an encyclopedic feel.
    •  Done. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • Can a team "come back" from a scoreless situation?
    •  Done. I've rewritten the sentence to better describe the game situation. While the Southern California Sun did hold the Americans scoreless through three quarters, the Ams' defense was not as resolute and had allowed the Sun to score a touchdown in the second quarter. It was from this 7-point deficit that they came back to win 11-7. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • Some of the prose in this section is rather informal. Problem phrases include "On the road", "road win", "in the win column", "braved rain and foul weather", "pulled out a [...] victory", "The Ams", etc There is nothing wrong with these phrases as such, but the overall tone is more that of a sports magazine than an encyclopedia and the overall neutrality of the article is affected.
    • A result, no doubt, of my being immersed in mid-1970s sports reporting for two weeks as I prepared this article. I've tightened up the prose a bit and would welcome a second look. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• Second-half split: again, my chief concern in this generally well-written section is the journalistic tone, but I have a few specific queries:
  • What is a shutout?
    •  Done. The WP article to which I have now linked the term says, "In team sports, a shutout (a clean sheet in association football) refers to a game in which one team prevents the opposing team from scoring." - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • Why are the Florida Blazers described as "destitute"?
    •  Done. The team was in abysmal financial shape, even compared to other WFL teams, owing money to a variety of private and governmental entities and did not even pay its players after mid-September. Unlike Birmingham which was drawing large, if declining, crowds, the Blazers home gate draw was woeful so the league forced a sale and forced the team to give up its remaining regular season home games. I've expanded on this a bit, with new references, and chosen a phrase quoted from one article rather than my synthesis word. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • The program cover image is decorative, but you'll have a hard job making the case that it significantly increases readers' understanding of the article.
    •  Done I've added the reason (that it incorrectly shows that match as a Birmingham home game after the late schedule change) to the caption. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • "With this victory, the team clinched a playoff spot and its increasing financial woes put the playing of the final regular season game in doubt." The "and" connector is wrong here, and "it" is not properly defined. Also, "playoff" for what?
    •  Done by replacing "and" with "but", "it" with "Birmingham franchise", and specifying WFL playoffs. (You raise an interesting point and there should be a World Football League playoffs article to mirror the National Football League playoffs article. I'll put it on the lengthy 'to do' list for WFL-related articles.) - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • "With whether this game would be played in doubt until the day of the contest..." Awkward phrasing. Try "With doubts as to whether this game would be played persisting until the day of the contest, ..." Then replace the "and" after "poor" with a semicolon.
    •  Done and done. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• Playoffs
  • I think "receiving a bye" would be better than "waiting out"
    •  Done. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • Shouldn't the section actually mention that Birmingham won the World Bowl, e.g: "...Birmingham beat the Florida Blazers 22–21 and thus won the World Bowl"?
    •  Done. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • Overuse of emphasiser "just", as in "just 32,376 fans", "just five months", "just 12 games". Same problem to an extent earlier in the article. None of these "justs" are really necessary.
    •  Done.

• Schedule and results
  • a key should explain the use of colors
    •  Done. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • Week numbers and attendance figures would look neater if aligned to the center of their columns
    •  Done, although I'm sure there is a more elegant way to accomplish this. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• Financial fallout
  • Last sentence of first paragraph needs a citation
    •  Done. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • Can you explain "The suit detailed the $30,000 in state income withholding taxes..." Doesn't seem to make grammatical sense.
    •  Done. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • Two "pluses" in this sentence make for untidy prose
    •  Done. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• Loss of property: 60:40 split is between whom?
  •  Done. Rewritten for clarity. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• Loss of players: information confused by reference to the Vulcans - why is this relevant here?
  •  Done by clarifying that this "including any of the Americans' player contracts". - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• Loss of franchise
  • "The Vulcans would official secure the Birmingham franchise in April 1975" Should be "The Vulcans officially secured the Birmingham franchise in April 1975."
    •  Done. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• • "just 12 games" again
    •  Done. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• Legacy: can you explain, perhaps earlier in the article, what a "World Bowl championship ring" is. Is this a gold ring worn on the finger, or what?
  • •  Done by adding a wikilink to the championship ring article. It is, as you surmised, a gold ring to be worn on the finger. These are quite common in American professional sports and it hadn't occurred to me that the term might be unfamiliar to an international audience . - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

That's all my specific points. I have done a little copyediting while reading through, but I still think the prose could do with some overall polish, preferably from someone who knows more about American football than I do. Brianboulton (talk) 13:08, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Your suggestions and guidance are deeply appreciated. I would be grateful if you could review the comments I've posted above as I am still uncertain how to proceed on these points. - Dravecky (talk) 23:31, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

References

• Note: Per the instructions on the PR page (under "How to respond to a request"), please remove the image-responses from this review: "The size of this page is limited. Please do not add images to peer reviews, such as the tick/cross images in {{done}}/{{notdone}} templates. Use the non-image templates, {{done-t}}/{{not done-t}}, instead." Thanks! María (habla conmigo) 13:22, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Whoops. Fixed. - Dravecky (talk) 15:36, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Further comments

• Images (fair use rationales)
  • Ticket: I have replaced the fair-use rationale for the ticket image with something more appropriate. But...I don't think there's much chance that this will be accepted. The chief purpose of the image is said to be to illustrate the organizational and administrative muddle that affected the team from the beginning; the image caption refers to "one of many organizational problems with the new team", but these problems are not highlighted in the text, so it will be hard to maintain that this issue is central to the article. Even more problematic is that we have to claim that the image is not replaceable. It will, however, be argued that plenty of these tickets are still in existence as souvenirs and that it is therefore technically possible for you to find one and photograph it.
  • Program cover: the minor error on the cover isn't a sufficient reason, on its own, to justify use. I can't see any chance that this image will be accepted as fair use, and recoommend that you withdraw it.
• Prose: It is always difficult with sports-related articles (where much of the information comes from sports journals and match reports) to find a tone in the prose which isn't magaziney yet at the same time is not completely lifeless. You have attended to my main concerns, so I'd be prepared to take a chance on it.

Good luck with the article, Brianboulton (talk) 16:20, 29 April 2010 (UTC)