In Rick Reilly's article "Too Many Spoilsports" he talks about how too many athletes are driven to do what's best for themselves and not for the good of the game, in the process killing sportsmanship. He brings up numerous good points throughout the article by talking about athletes and what they exactly do to ruin the image of sports in this country. Reilly is very effective because he really shows the greed in sports with many famous sports stars as examples of it; this makes his writing sound very convincing and interesting and this is why he uses ethos, pathos and logos effectively in this article.
First of all Reilly carries a lot of credibility that transcends well to the reader, making his ethos very strong and convincing. He is a very credible writer because he has been on the senior staff for Sports Illustrated and his columns are mostly highly respected and thought provoking. Reilly also knows numerous athletes which only boosts his credibility in the field of which he is talking about, which is athlete's personality and psychology. An example of his knowledge and credibility among the athletic community is that he personally knows Michael Jordan "Talks more trash on the court than prison hard-timers" (68). He would really have to be in-depth into the action to know that one of the greatest athletes of our generation also had one of the foulest mouths of our generation as well. These appeals to the authority make the reader believe what the writer is saying and any falsehoods in the article would be totally non-existent.
Emotion, or the pathos of the article, also plays a big role in this argument by authority. Reilly intelligently feeds off the minds of anyone who reads the article. He knows already that the reader probably is a sports fan or they wouldn't be reading a Sports Illustrated and he uses this to his great advantage. By reminiscing about the past and some of the truly awful things athletes have done over the years Reilly can really bring his point across about spoiled athletes.