Has SI recovered some mojo?

I have been a faithful subscriber since my cousin gave me a year long subscription around 1975, which makes whoa 37 years! A few years ago, I found myself almost neglecting the issues since it appeared to me that the feature stories were just not very good. Plus the regular columns were too topical, before I used to love the regular weekly comuns from Paul Zimmerman (may he recover soon) and the others. I just about gave it up but have continued to subscribe because my kid sells magazines as a fund raiser for his school.

Well I opened up this week's 9/17 issue with Manning on the cover and really noticed the multiple stories that I cannot wait to read, Peyton Manning, Alex Zanardi, Daron Roberts the guy who is an assistant at WV with a Harvard law degree, and the story about where Carruth killed the kid's mom but could not kill the kid. Maybe its just the emotional pull of Zanardi (lost legs) and Carruth's kid, but it hit me hard.

I hope SI keeps it up.

 

I like that they seem to have limited the ads. It makes magazine less cluttered and easier to find the articles.

 

Sports Illustrated and ESPN: The Magazine seem to have issues like this week's SI once every other month or so, where they're loaded with great stories. It's a strong issue but not an unusual occurrence.

 

I think there has been a noticeable improvement in the last couple years.

I never would have guessed in a million years that I would like Phil Taylor as a backpage columnist as much as I do. It's even more notable because of the much bigger names who failed in that role.

 

Last week's was a great issue. Compelling stories and capped off by a nice column by Chipper Jones. Overall, the changes with the social media recaps and some of graphics pages made me dizzy at times. I think the change in the front end has made it harder for me, in some respects, to get fire up over that issue.
Having said that, looks like they finally found a replacement for Riley on the back page. I agree with Mizzou on Phil Taylor. He's been solid.

 

The recent cover story with Jim McMahon almost had me in tears. That was great stuff.

 

terrific 'carruth' piece. cannot wait to get to the 'mcmahon/concussions' piece; keep putting it off, try to clear time to read it straight through without interruption.

 

Good story but found myself in oddly skeptical state of mind when reading. Perhaps because McMahon was known for his hard living I wondered how much was related to football.

I found the ESPN / Tom Friend story on William Perry to more emotional. The 86 Bears have had a lot of heartbreak much like The Steelers. Two of the most dominant NFL teams ever.

 

It's basically done in three separate parts, so no worry there.

Fine story, but different only that it was told from the women's perspective. Instead of "Joe can't do . . . ", it's "I have to help Joe because Joe can't do . . . "

Will be interesting seeing what becomes of the lawsuit. Seems to me that spending your career getting hit by a train every week, then saying, "Hey, I didn't know getting hit by a train every week would hurt me" is a tough place to start from.

 

Phil Taylor is a pro's pro in this business. A long forgotten and underrated talent.

 

I'd liken it more to knowing your going to get hurt by a train next week, but you're told to keep standing on the tracks even if you're hurt or else you'll get fired without much, (if any from back then), severance pay.

 

I'm surprised to see all the love for Taylor in the back. He's harmless; a big step up from the late Reilly years and even the Roberts experiment. I rarely find his columns memorable or think about them beyond turning the page.