Jinx or Bad Timing...

I’m sure that a few of you have heard of the Sports Illustrated jinx. For those of you that haven’t let’s just say there have been a fair amount of high profile athletes and/or teams that have graced the cover of the sports magazine only to see the teams or athletes fail when everyone was sure they were a shoo in for victory.

Olympic athletes that were considered far and away better than the competition fallen during speed skating competition or things of that nature. You remember the agony of defeat.

There were a few times this past year when my magazine arrived in the mail and I would see the cover and shudder, thinking to myself, “Uh oh, that’s not a good sign!” And sure enough, like clockwork the favorite would fall a few days later.

I have a few examples: The March 25 issue had a picture of Kelly Olynyk surrounded by members of the Gonzaga Kennel Club. When the NCAA tournament started the Number 1 rated Bulldogs would go flat and get knocked out in the third round, the second game they would play. I did not feel comfortable when I saw the picture saying to myself, “That’s not good.”

In September, the Pittsburgh Pirates were the focal point of the SI cover. It had been around 20 years since the nine from steel town USA had the chance to make it to the baseball playoffs. They made it, but they would lose out to St. Louis after beating Cincinnati in a one game playoff. Not bad so it wasn’t truly a jinx. They did have to win their way to playoff glory the last couple of weeks of September.

On Oct. 7, brothers B.J. and Justin Upton were on the cover with super model Kate Upton. The Upton brothers are Atlanta Braves ballplayers and they were getting ready to take on the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kate Upton is a regular on the cover, but usually on the swimsuit issue.

I was thinking that there was a good chance the Dodgers were going to beat the Braves and they did. The Upton brothers needed to hit with runners in scoring position. Kate Upton on the other hand doesn’t seem to have that jinx problem because being a beautiful super model is a lot different than playing the game. In other words, she doesn’t make a lot of mistakes posing for pictures in a bikini.

Marcus Mariotta, the Oregon Duck quarterback was on the cover of SI twice. The first time was Aug. 19 when the NCAA football season was previewed. There was speculation that the Ducks would be vying for a national championship. On the Nov. 4 issue there was Mariotta again and the speculation was magnified because Oregon was undefeated. But on Thursday, Nov. 7, the Stanford Cardinals destroyed the Ducks dream of playing for that elusive national championship.

Alabama QB, AJ McCarron, the guy most thought Mariotta would battle in the big game, was featured on the cover of the Nov. 25 edition of SI. With two championships as a starting QB for the Crimson Tide he was the odds on favorite to repeat in the big game as well as win the Heisman trophy. Who could beat these guys? Try Auburn with the most unlikely play of the year when a missed field goal was returned from deep in the Auburn end zone ending up 108 yards away in the Alabama end zone. War Eagle!

On Dec. 2, Dallas Cowboy QB Tony Romo’s picture was on the SI cover with an accompanying article on the inside. A couple of weeks later Romo would be injured and would have to sit out the last game of the season. Actually, Romo was in a hospital bed after undergoing back surgery. On the other hand, if you go back to Feb. 4 of last year, Ray Lewis was on the cover of SI and his Baltimore Ravens would come away with the Super Bowl trophy.

Boston may have been the most superstitious of any team out there. Following their World Series victory over St. Louis, David Ortiz posed with several first responders from Boston. There can be no jinx when the championship has already been secured, right?

I really doubt there is a real jinx. As the most popular sports magazine, and a weekly one at that, there will be a lot of high profile people that will be featured on the magazine’s cover. Maybe these covers become locker room fodder after the magazine arrives. So realistically it may not be a jinx at all just bad timing for the favorites.