i disagree. if he said unit, i would agree. i accept that there are way to interpret it in context, but i would like to see the plural verb.
actually i dont like the whole sentence. after fielding one of the top units, the special teams.... they didnt field the units, they are the units. the whole sentence brings sadness to my soul. edit: i think i am overly critical here. i just wouldnt have written it that way, thats alls i'm sayin.
There is no doubt that it should be "Special Teams Opens." Special teams is a singular noun. You might want to start sending some hate mail to your high school English teacher.
but special teams means the kicking team, the return team, the kickoff team, lots of teams. like i said, i know in some context you could mean a single aspect of the game, like there are 3 parts, offense, defense and special teams. and those are viewed as single units. but i tell you what, it doesnt look good in that sentence. i think it could be phrased in such a way as to remove the ambiguity and please more reader's eyes.
There are three categories of players on a football team: the offense, the defense, and the special teams. All three are singular nouns. It can get confusing with team names too. For example, The Jacksonville Jaguars is a singular noun. Most people would write a sentence like this: "The Jaguars are a good team." However, the correct way to write it would be: "The Jaguars is a good team." Most people either aren't aware of, or don't follow, the rule.
it depends on context. if you are referring to the jaguars as a bunch of guys, then clearly they are plural and the jaguars are a good team. the jacksonville jaguars are playing good defense. not "the jacksonville jaguars is playing good defense." context matters. the special teams (meaning kicking, punting, etc), they are playing well. not "the special teams is playing well".
It is absolutly impossible to write an entire article without messing up at least 1-2 things. This thing went through 2-3 sets of editors and it still was wrong in a few places. The only person in this profession who is perfect is Scrappy! lol
Sorry dude, that is wrong. Any time you are refering to the team, it is a singular noun and should be treated as such. I know it doesn't sound right, but it's correct. Again, you won't find many people who follow the rule.
clair, just post the pre-article here...we'll dissect it and put it back together and then you send it to the editor! :lol:
