Is this a massive typo at the top of today’s sports front in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel?
At first glance, it appears to be a typo. I checked out the JPEG that was sent me. It doesn’t appear to have been tampered with. So I don’t think it’s a hoax.
And the word “team” is spelled correctly on the paper’s web site:
However, check out the lede of the story. Instead of the usual names, I’m going to boldface a couple of phrases for you instead:
Dom Capers’ defense lives. The Green Bay Packers are alive and well, too.
Led by Clay Matthews, the irrepressible and almost unblockable linebacker, the Packers’ defense buried Jay Cutler under an avalanche of seven sacks in a badly needed 23-10 victory over the Chicago Bears on Thursday night at Lambeau Field.
The defense was teeming. Get it? It’s a pun. One that, I suspect, might not have been received very well by all readers. Because, as the saying goes: If you have to explain it…
If there’s one thing I love, though, is a great pun headline. I certainly have had enough suggested pun headlines slapped back at me over the years. Yet, this one got completely past me until I queried Journal Sentinel A1 design guru Ed Brud, who confirmed:
Smarter than the average designer, this copy desk of ours. Headline was playing off the swarming Packers defense.
And there ya go: A pun. My compliments to the sports desk. (And my condolences to those who supervise them.)
Yet, that doesn’t explain the more conventional spelling of “team” on the web version of the story. Or does it? Remember: News aggregator ‘bots neither “get” nor appreciate pun headlines. Most likely, the web guys just put a standard spelling on the word and let it go. And wisely so.
If this had been an actual typo, however, it might have ranked right up there with this other Packers-related gem from two seasons ago:
Now, that was a typo.
Thanks to Milwaukee-based freelancer Malcolm McDowell Woods for the tip.
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UPDATE – 4:25 P.M.
Looks like Jim Romenesko was on this same story today, too.
