The Bucs’ massive Lovie Smith longform, by the numbers
Here are the raw facts on the Buccaneers’ sweeping story of Lovie Smith.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a new story they’d like you to read. It’s a sweeping tale of love in the time of Glazers called The First 100 Days and centers on Lovie Smith. We’ll give you a guess what it’s about. If you’re a die-hard Bucs fan with a weekend to spare, then it’s right up your ally. All 32,774 words of it.
It’s billed as a “longform,” but lets not mince words -- it’s a novel. Longer than Animal Farm, more verbose than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. You probably had to read Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye in high school -- well Holden Caulfield came of age in just over twice the time it took Lovie to get used to life in Tampa.
Here are some fun facts about The First 100 Days:
- The Book of Tebow was 15,926 words, or 0.49 the length of The First 100 Days
- Old Yeller was barely longer at 35,968 words.
- The classic children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was 30,644 words.
- Animal Farm is 29,966 words.
- Abraham Lincoln would need to repeat The Gettysburg Address 121 times to match it.
- The Catcher in the Rye weighs in at 73,404 words.
- SB Nation’s preview of the 2014 World Cup was 35,502 words.
“How many words are repeated?” You might ask, we’re glad you did. Here are the top 25.
- smith - 413 times (5.1%)
- first - 145 times (1.8%)
- day - 124 times (1.5%)
- just - 122 times (1.5%)
- team - 118 times (1.5%)
- buccaneers - 115 times (1.4%)
- time - 113 times (1.4%)
- new - 109 times (1.4%)
- would - 108 times (1.3%)
- free - 106 times (1.3%)
- players - 101 times (1.3%)
- said - 99 times (1.2%)
- will - 97 times (1.2%)
- like - 97 times (1.2%)
- going - 91 times (1.1%)
- days - 90 times (1.1%)
- get - 86 times (1.1%)
- up - 86 times (1.1%)
- bucs - 81 times (1.0%)
- lovie - 76 times (0.9%)
- coach - 74 times (0.9%)
- nfl - 72 times (0.9%)
- year - 71 times (0.9%)
- licht - 71 times (0.9%)
- back - 70 times (0.9%)
If you're a visual learner, here's a word cloud for you:
Made with Tagxedo
One last factoid:
- Number of people who have read all of The First 100 Days: 0
