Sports Illustrated Is Gone

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Man, there was true excitement when I’d grab the mail and see my copy of Sports Illustrated.

All through middle school, high school and even on through college, my copy of SI was waiting there for me.

I read every word.

You see, back then we didn’t have the access to athletes that we do now. We had to wait, to see the predictions, read the stories, and memorize the column written on the last page.

Frank DeFord was a personal favorite writer of mine, and I told him that when I met him at a book event in New York City - he was gracious and signed a copy of his book for me.

My wife was with me - didn’t get my excitement - “Never heard of him.”

Rick Reilly took over the last page and I normally turned straight to what he was saying.

Made me laugh.

Made me think.

I felt like I knew him.

And man, we talked a lot about the dream job of being a columnist for Sports Illustrated.

I wrote a lot of pretend columns back in those days.

Here’s the sad part:

It’s been years since I read Sports Illustrated. I don’t know why.

And yet, I was deeply saddened when I heard that it’s completely over now.

We’ve definitely lost a step.

My buddies and I were always going through SI to find the best photos of our favorite athletes so we could try and get autographs.

We would cut out and save those pictures…

…I have a bunch of signed Sports  Illustrated covers.

The shows are tough to listen to now.

I can handle Dan Patrick because I still believe he’s the best at sports talk radio. The newer, younger talk show hosts are shouting out hot takes that are meant to be controversial.

As for the writers, the Athletic is doing some good work, but I’m hesitant to hand over my credit card on my phone.

(Yeah, yeah, I’m ancient!)

I always kinda’ want to hold a copy of a magazine anyway and I still buy books - real books.

Anywhoha…

Sports illustrated is no more.

Damn, my childhood keeps fading away.

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