Discourse Community: New Orleans Saints NFL Football Team

Elias Panzardi
New Orleans Saints Organization
RWS 1301
October 13, 2016

Discourse Community: New Orleans Saints NFL Football Team

Introduction
Discourse communities exist everywhere around the world and in our very own lives. As
individuals, we belong to hundreds of discourse communities and we dont even realize it. A
Discourse community is a social group of any kind that has a certain lexis, specific genres,
certain expertise of the subject, mechanisms to help spread communication amongst each other,
and common goals within the members of the group. To further enrich on the idea of discourse
communities, John Swales explains that discourse communities are groups that have goals or
purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals. As a football fanatic the NFL team
The New Orleans Saints is a great discourse community to analyze. The Saints NFL team is
indeed a discourse community that contains an abundance of these characteristics.
Literature Review
A discourse community and its six characteristics are analyzed and precisely described in
the article, The Concept of Discourse Community, by John Swales. If certain social groups
contain the six specific ideals of a discourse community, then they are considered a discourse
community. The concepts include, members working in synch for a common goal, mechanisms
for communication amongst members, feedback between information exchanges, a certain
degree of expertise of the group, specific lexis amongst inside members only, and certain genres
for the members to use.
To further develop the idea of discourse communities Swales details what is considered a
discourse community and what is not. Swales emphasizes the importance of an individual group
sharing common goals for being the thread of a discourse community because it is commonality
of goal, not shared object of study that is criterial (Swales, 1990, p. 220). Although it is often

Discourse Community: New Orleans Saints NFL Football Team

confused that a discourse community only requires the same subject of study, common public
goals is the main criteria of a discourse community. Individuals of the group can have other goals
aside, but the main goal should be shared throughout its members.
Discourse communities remain using lexical items known to the wider speech
communities in special and technical ways. (Swales, 1990, p. 222). This can include standard
ways of using highly technical terminology, or special items or vocabulary for the group to solely
understand (Swales, 1990). All teams within the NFL contain their own ways of spreading the
knowledge of plays to the players, not a single team shares the exact same terminology of such
subject.
Genres, or the way communication is spread can be seen in the National Football League
through the use of enhanced technology that enables the wireless communications coaches,
players and officials use during the games (NFL, 2015). These shows the specific genres the
group contains in order to successfully and smoothly translate language from one member to the
next. Discourse communities all contain certain standard methods of writing/communication
such as letters, radio transmitted devices and text messaging. Genres form overtime as the
discourse community increases. This makes them recognized standard forms of communication
amongst members. In the page titled Technology| NFL football, technology and
communication is emphasized as the main genre for NFL Professional football teams. Standard
technology increases the way they play football every year and more and more the members
become more familiar with it, making it a standard genre in their discourse community.
Discussion
The New Orleans Saints NFL team is a discourse community within a discourse
community. Alongside many other teams within the NFL organization, the Saints have certain

Discourse Community: New Orleans Saints NFL Football Team

lexis, genres, goals, expertise, and mechanisms for intercommunication. The team specifically
shares common goals to help win games and hopefully win the championship in the super bowl.
The members of the team are professionals with many years of experience, therefore they are
paid millions of dollars to practice and do their best as a whole. During my research, I was able
to study this group as a whole, which allowed me to greatly understand their practices and
achievements. Through the six characteristics of a discourse community, we can analyze the
extent of which these qualifications are met in the six characteristics.
The first qualification is that the discourse community shares common goals. The goals
of the New Orleans Saints are to ensure with their hours and hours of precision training that the
football games are won in order to continue to get paid and to eventually win super bowl rings
for both the franchise and themselves. According to the Saints staff, technology completely
changed the way team members and coaches communicate during games. This was a major
change in helping the teams reach their goal of winning as many games as possible. While
researching, it was deduced that every NFL team in this league shared the same view on player
contributions to their individual goals as a team. According to Swales the communicative needs
of the goals tend to predominate in the development and maintenance of its discoursal
characteristics (Swales, 1990, p. 220). This exclaims a discourse communitys goal as the
dependent of its actions and effective communications, while being the center nerve for the
specific discourse community.
In order for a successful discourse community to exist amongst many individuals, there
must be some means of communication. Communication eliminates chaos and confusion, and
brings order, which then establishes an open path towards success. Mechanisms of
intercommunication are clearly being used here between members. Like millions of professional

Discourse Community: New Orleans Saints NFL Football Team

organizations and communities, the Saints have specific methods of communication that
involved technology and verbal lexis. Since the beginning teams created plays, which helped,
score touchdowns. These plays were stressed and told verbally to the Quarter back during a
huddle or timeout during a live game. These plays were written in a book, to be seen visually for
the team members. This book is known as a playbook. Playbooks are still told verbally, but now
technology has enhanced the way plays are viewed and taught. According to Michelle McKennaDoyles article Technology| NFL football operations, Technology helps players and teams
communicate and gives coaches the tools needed (2015). Microsoft Surface Pro tablets are now
used to electronically view plays during live games and practice. This exclaims the effectiveness
of communication based of the NFL teams intercommunication mechanisms and devices used
amongst each other.
For participatory mechanisms, the head coach is one of the main leaders of the group,
right below the owner of the actual franchise. Although there are other assistant coaches with
certain jobs to help make the head coachs job easier, the head coach makes overall decision and
vital play calling. For offense and defense the specifically assigned coaches give written and/or
verbal commands in person to the players and members below them. The team members then
take these commands and knowledge and turn them into the actions they serve on the football
field in order to run plays and win games. The teams, coaches, and staff are often or always
present during practice and/or the live games themselves. The coaches then are often judged
based off the performance of the players on the field, if the players seem to not produce and lose
games constantly, then coaches or players themselves should then fear in losing their jobs or
being benched. Data of these players is taken on charts of the coaches and videos, which are then
analyzed during, practice hours or during personal time. It is crucial to communicate amongst

Discourse Community: New Orleans Saints NFL Football Team

members and coaches to be aware of the play being called and know your specific job of the
specific play.
In addition to communication amongst themselves, there is communication with fans.
Being a professional football team, communication from players to fans is often crucial to keep
popularity, and keep a huge fan base. The New Orleans Saints contains a huge fan base, so in
order to come in contact with as many fans as possible communication through their main
website is available (http://www.neworleanssaints.com/fan-zone/index.html). Through this web
page fans can access the team on twitter, enter a chance to win prizes, meet Saints partners, and
view sponsorships. Of course as being a fan and not an insider of the actual discourse community
known as the team members themselves, they dont always understand certain terms told. This is
because each discourse community has its own lexis or vocabulary, which is mainly meant for
the group members themselves to understand.
Lexis refers to the vocabulary used in a certain setting. Certain language exists amongst
the team members themselves. During games the players use their expertise on the plays
developed during practice. The Quarterback for example is the centerpiece of all these plays
formed. Therefore he contains a wristband with all the offense plays and with a specific language
only known by the team members he distributes the plays specifically. When the Quarterback is
ready to hike the ball he begins shouting out terms, these terms vary from team to team, but in
the Saints franchise, the quarterback Drew Brees shouts codes such as Blue 42, and Red 97.
With just that simple shout out the players know exactly where they should be positioned and
exactly how the position should be executed.
Genres are used to help spread the activities and communication around the discourse
community. In the NFL team setting there are many genres that involve writing, technological

Discourse Community: New Orleans Saints NFL Football Team

advancements, and some form of reading. For instance, the use of social media to communicate
with outsiders and fans that may not live anywhere near the team. Also the game contains
huddles, which give the team time to communicate and chose another play, which is told directly
to the quarterback from the headset in his helmet, then passed on the rest of the team.
Conclusion
Through deep analysis and research of the New Orleans Saints pro NFL team, it is in
many ways defined as a discourse community. Having discussed the six characteristics of a
discourse community, there are multiple levels which make this group so. Communication
shaped by the use of lexis, genres, and expertise all form together toward the accomplishment of
the common public goal. The Saints goal of winning championships is achieved through
communication, and action. Seeing how inter-related many of the NFL communities are shows
how The Saints franchise really belongs to a bigger discourse community being the NFL itself.
Many discourse communities are actually smaller communities amongst larger ones. In all, many
of the communities within the NFL are all sharing one common goal, to win games and win the
super bowl.

Discourse Community: New Orleans Saints NFL Football Team

Reference
Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Genre Analysis: English in Academic
and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 990. 21-32. Print.
Icapwow.files.wordpress.com. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2016, from
https://icapwow.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/swales-the-concept-of-discoursecommunity.pdf
Http://operations.nfl.com/the-game/technology/. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://operations.nfl.com/the-game/technology/