Weekly Beef — Sports Illustrated Being Outplayed

This week’s sign of the apocalypse? Sports Illustrated has been benched as the best source of sports media.

I’ve been an avid reader of Sports Illustrated since I became literate (some might argue that’s not as long as I’d lead you to believe). It’s the closest reading material I have to a Bible. I don’t mean to babble about sports journalism and I’ve really tried to avoid it in this space, but I’ve started to come to the realization that my beloved SI has been replaced.

The once revered pages of SI have been outdone in recent months by ESPN, that indomitable dynasty of sports journalism based in Connecticut. For the one-time staple of Sports Illustrated — the long-form, in-depth, vivid sports reports — I’ve turned most of my attention to its rival. How bad has it gotten at SI?

— The once-illustrious back page home to Rick Reilly has been a revolving door of writers, featuring Selena Roberts, Phil Taylor and Chris Mannix (who is my personal favorite). While the trio each have their moments, none has the staying power or pizazz of either Rick Reilly or Steve Rushin (aka Rebecca Lobo’s husband).

— Speaking of Reilly, he and his shtick even jumped ship to the Worldwide Leader for a truckload of money. It’s just wrong, like watching Emmitt Smith in a Arizona Cardinals uniform.

— The best up-and-coming writers are no longer heading to SI. They’re taking their craft north to the Web pages of ESPN. You might not have heard of Wright Thompson or Michael Weinreb or Elizabeth Merrill, but you will very, very soon.

— The most recent edition of the “Best American Sports Writing” featured four articles from SI and three from ESPN.com (and one of those SI reports was from Reilly).

Admittedly, I do not have a subscription to ESPN The Magazine, so I have no basis to critique its product (I do have a subscription to SI). Yet ESPN’s Web site is far superior in product to SI with its E:60 and E-Ticket reports. They’re time-intensive, detailed and interesting. They go beyond the everyday professional sports and probe the odd, less publicized stories or sports. SI, on the other hand, is hitting the pro sports hard while tending to the egos of superstars.

(As an aside, I’m not the only person who feels this way or has thought about his before)

ESPN doesn’t have a Gary Smith or a Peter King, but they’re getting pretty close. Most noticeably, there are few new sports writers who write intriguing stories and regularly grace the pages of SI.

I want to believe in SI. I really do. I’m not somebody who likes changing something that’s broken, even if it might not be the newest or most hip item.

But it’s getting close to broke at SI. If its editors can realize that a return to its roots is a recipe for good journalism, SI doesn’t have to look far on how to fix itself.