Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

I am in the last stages of checking my manuscript and have a couple football-related writing style questions I could not find in the Chicago Manual of Style that I am sure can be answered by some of the authors here:

1 - When mentioning a specific postseason game, such as "Pittsburgh defeated Indianapolis 21-18 in the 2005 AFC Divisional Playoff game," the words "Divisional Playoff" are capitalized since they refer to an actual game, correct?

2 - If I were to say "The winners of the two divisional playoff games meet for the conference championship," the words "divisional playoff" and "conference championship" are lower case because they do not refer to an actual game that was played, just the game in general, correct?

3 - If I were to say "Houston and Baltimore will meet in the Wild Card game next week," is this correct to capitalize "Wild Card", since it references a specific game?

4 - If I were to say "Kansas City just clinched a wild card," that would always be lower-case, correct?

5 - If I were to say "Cincinnati has never won a wild card game," the words "wild card" would be lower-case, correct?

I know the Super Bowl is always capitalized. Is NFL Championship Game always capitalized, or is it NFL Championship game? What about AFC Divisional Playoff game or AFC Divisional playoff game? AFC Wild Card game or AFC Wild Card Game? They call the Wild Card game the First Round game now, but is it First Round or First-Round?

Is there a reference document or online resource that can answer these kinds of questions? Any assistance would be appreciated.

I would agree on all your points (1-5), Rupert.

I also went thru that PFRA writing suggestions booklet and didn't get any help there either.

Another one I have a question with - In Western division, "Western" is always capitalized and "division" is never capitalized? What about in 1941, when the NFL Western division had a tiebreaker game? Is "Division Tiebreaker" also capitalized, as in NFL Western Division Tiebreaker game?

Rupert Patrick wrote:I am in the last stages of checking my manuscript and have a couple football-related writing style questions I could not find in the Chicago Manual of Style that I am sure can be answered by some of the authors here:

1 - When mentioning a specific postseason game, such as "Pittsburgh defeated Indianapolis 21-18 in the 2005 AFC Divisional Playoff game," the words "Divisional Playoff" are capitalized since they refer to an actual game, correct?

2 - If I were to say "The winners of the two divisional playoff games meet for the conference championship," the words "divisional playoff" and "conference championship" are lower case because they do not refer to an actual game that was played, just the game in general, correct?

3 - If I were to say "Houston and Baltimore will meet in the Wild Card game next week," is this correct to capitalize "Wild Card", since it references a specific game?

4 - If I were to say "Kansas City just clinched a wild card," that would always be lower-case, correct?

5 - If I were to say "Cincinnati has never won a wild card game," the words "wild card" would be lower-case, correct?

I know the Super Bowl is always capitalized. Is NFL Championship Game always capitalized, or is it NFL Championship game? What about AFC Divisional Playoff game or AFC Divisional playoff game? AFC Wild Card game or AFC Wild Card Game? They call the Wild Card game the First Round game now, but is it First Round or First-Round?

Is there a reference document or online resource that can answer these kinds of questions? Any assistance would be appreciated.

If I were you, I'd be inclined to use the AP Stylebook, since it's more germane to the type of writing we PFRA people tend to do.

I wouldn't capitalize "Wild Card" in your example #3, and neither would the AP.

Rupert Patrick wrote:I also went thru that PFRA writing suggestions booklet and didn't get any help there either.

Another one I have a question with - In Western division, "Western" is always capitalized and "division" is never capitalized? What about in 1941, when the NFL Western division had a tiebreaker game? Is "Division Tiebreaker" also capitalized, as in NFL Western Division Tiebreaker game?

I would always capitalize "Division" when referring to a specific division, such as "Eastern Division," "Western Division," et al.

rhickok1109 wrote:

Rupert Patrick wrote:I am in the last stages of checking my manuscript and have a couple football-related writing style questions I could not find in the Chicago Manual of Style that I am sure can be answered by some of the authors here:

1 - When mentioning a specific postseason game, such as "Pittsburgh defeated Indianapolis 21-18 in the 2005 AFC Divisional Playoff game," the words "Divisional Playoff" are capitalized since they refer to an actual game, correct?

2 - If I were to say "The winners of the two divisional playoff games meet for the conference championship," the words "divisional playoff" and "conference championship" are lower case because they do not refer to an actual game that was played, just the game in general, correct?

3 - If I were to say "Houston and Baltimore will meet in the Wild Card game next week," is this correct to capitalize "Wild Card", since it references a specific game?

4 - If I were to say "Kansas City just clinched a wild card," that would always be lower-case, correct?

5 - If I were to say "Cincinnati has never won a wild card game," the words "wild card" would be lower-case, correct?

I know the Super Bowl is always capitalized. Is NFL Championship Game always capitalized, or is it NFL Championship game? What about AFC Divisional Playoff game or AFC Divisional playoff game? AFC Wild Card game or AFC Wild Card Game? They call the Wild Card game the First Round game now, but is it First Round or First-Round?

Is there a reference document or online resource that can answer these kinds of questions? Any assistance would be appreciated.

If I were you, I'd be inclined to use the AP Stylebook, since it's more germane to the type of writing we PFRA people tend to do.

I wouldn't capitalize "Wild Card" in your example #3, and neither would the AP.

I've got the AP Stylebook and am going thru it. It is confusing to understand the logic they use.

A little late at getting to this thread, but here is the style sheet the editor put together for my book for reference:

Captialization
AFC Divisional Playoff game, but a divisional playoff game
NFC Wild Card game
Week 1 game
Rule 7–3 –1 (en-dashes consistently used)
Per typical sports style
 Spell out numbers one through nine, use numerals for 10 and above.
 Always use numerals for heights (6-foot- 3), linear measurements (passed for 3 yards), point totals (tied 21–7), degrees, percentages.
 Allow times of day in AP style: 1 p.m., 3:30 p.m.
 Allow this format (5:46) for time remaining.
Spell out “versus” in running text, except in the phrase “5 vs. 15 enforcement” (universally cited with abbreviation in football articles and NFL rulebook).
CMS 8.89: Designations of time and time zones are lowercased (except for proper nouns).
drop-kick (v), dropkick (n)
face mask
field goal, not hyphenated for field goal attempt, field goal unit, etc.
hash mark
horsehair
in bounds: within the sidelines of the field
off-season
rulebook
timeout, per NFL rulebook
warm-up