Why the news of Sports Illustrated’s downfall hits me so hard

Growing up, I waited for Thursdays the way the other kids in school yearned for Fridays. On Thursdays, I knew Sports Illustrated would be waiting for me in the mail. I’d snatch every copy as if it were the last piece of bacon at a breakfast buffet, jump face-first on my blue comforter and devour it. Sports Illustrated accounted for a large percentage of all the reading I did as a kid.

It bewildered teachers why I wouldn’t even open “The Canterbury Tales” or “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” but would read every word of a 5,000-word opus by Frank Deford about a high school football coach I didn’t know existed or turn to Peter Gammons to learn exactly why my New York Mets hero Dwight Gooden had lost his fastball. Tom Sawyer couldn’t possibly compete.

That is why it is an absolute tragedy to hear on Friday that some 70 years after its first iconic cover, which featured future baseball Hall of Famer Eddie Matthews, Sports Illustrated may soon be dead. We are not talking about a typical reduction in talent or a decline in quality. (Layoffs have plagued the magazine in recent years. Then there was the recent scandal where Sports Illustrated was accused of using artificial-intelligence-generated stories and fake bylines and eschewing journalism for poorly worded drek around which to frame ads.) The Arena Group, which had a license from Authentic Brands Group to publish SI, is laying off a huge portion of the writers and editors. Authentic Brands Group bought the magazine for $110 million in 2019.

The magazine’s union said in a statement on X that workers have been told that Arena plans to “lay off a significant number, possibly all” of the staff represented by the union.

Authentic Brands Group insists SI isn’t dead: “Authentic is here to ensure that the brand of Sports Illustrated, which includes its editorial arm, continues to thrive as it has for the past nearly 70 years,” the company said in a statement, NBC News reported.

Sports Illustrated articles written by folks like Deford and Gammons comprised my version of “the great works.” Their articles were literary, acerbic and, for me, total catnip. Sports can make for storytelling gold, and it’s no coincidence that some of our finest writers also lent their talents to writing about sports. For people from George Plimpton to David Halberstam to Ralph Wiley, writing about sports was where they sharpened their craft and even made their names. And all three wrote for Sports Illustrated.

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Then there was the “illustrated” part: Photos by legends such as Walter Iooss Jr. brought the games alive for me in bracing color that popped off the page. This was all back when ESPN was just a trailer and a satellite dish.

Sports Illustrated was where I also learned about how issues of race, sexuality, class and gender invaded and intersected with the games we love. The legends of greats such as Muhammad Ali or Billie Jean King were only burnished when presented through the eyes of these writers. This is not to say that there weren’t blind spots, or outdated articles that make you cringe, but even when SI face-planted, it put issues on the table, and the magazine was taken seriously.

When I worked with SI — I briefly wrote an online column — I was dancing on air. It felt like my wildest dreams had been fulfilled. That my time there did not work out was fine with me. I was proud to just have my name in the mix with the alums of the mag who had made so much magic.

Authentic Brands Group, it must be said, is a chilling name in an inauthentic age where brands are more valuable than human beings.  Authentic has reportedly ended its agreement with Arena Group to publish the mag.

According to A.J. Perez at Front Office Sports, “Arena missed a $3.75 million payment that breached the company’s SI licensing deal, which began in 2019.” Perez wrote that Arena Group told SI employees in a Friday email that it had been “notified by Authentic Brands Group (ABG) that the license under which the Arena Group operates the Sports Illustrated (SI) brand and SI related properties has been officially revoked by ABG. As a result of this license revocation, we will be laying off staff that work on the SI brand.”

Unionized staff have reportedly been given 90 days’ notice. Nonunion workers were to be fired immediately.

In a statement the Sports Illustrated Union posted to X, its NFL editor and unit chair Mitch Goldich says, “We have fought together as a union to maintain the standard of this storied publication that we love, and to make sure our workers are treated fairly for the value they bring to this company. It is a fight we will continue.”

Arena Group said it’s still negotiating with Authentic and, as for now, will still be publishing the magazine. “We hope to be the company to take SI forward but if not, we are confident that someone will,” a statement from Arena Group read, NBC News reported. “If it is another business, we will support with the transition so the legacy of Sports Illustrated doesn’t suffer.”

The timing of the Sports Illustrated news is terrible. This week, Variety reported that the NFL, which already employs journalists via the NFL Network, is aiming to buy a piece of ESPN, throwing the independence of “the Worldwide Leader in Sports” into doubt. We desperately need a well-funded and trusted national sports media that doesn’t have to answer to the professional sports leagues themselves.

Sports has always been about far more than just sports. Today, it’s billion-dollar, taxpayer-funded urban development projects whose impact is felt well beyond the stadiums themselves. It’s fights over the appropriate posture during the national anthem and militaristic cheers for the next war. It’s corruption that demands to be ferreted out. It’s issues of marginalization and oppression and how they reflect or are fought in the world of sports. It’s a cabal of billionaires in charge who prefer to do their business in the shadows.

Sports Illustrated used to spotlight the darkness. Now it is just a feature of the night.

The news of SI’s possible demise comes the same week news broke that Sinclair Inc. Executive Chairman David D. Smith is purchasing the legendary Baltimore Sun newspaper with clear plans to gut the paper under the leadership of right-wing flame thrower Armstrong Williams. The stories of SI and the Sun are different but also the same. Just as I grew up waiting on Sports Illustrated every Thursday, generations of people have depended upon the Baltimore Sun for the latest on local politics, police corruption and the treasured sports franchises of the city.

Now the Sun will be a paper, if Sinclair’s history is prologue, aimed at attacking the city itself. Expect divide-and-conquer politics, a war on truth that will benefit the wealthy who believe they should live above scrutiny, or “total immunity,” to borrow a Trumpian phrase. 

What’s happening in Baltimore is a reminder that the American press as a whole is greatly endangered. What’s happening to SI is a reminder that sports journalism in particular is, as well. An independent press in the world of sports has never been more needed. It has also never been more in doubt.

I am sad the chapter seems to be closing. I’m also sad for my son who looks forward every week to getting Sports Illustrated Kids. This was to be the year he’d graduate to the actual mag. No, SI was not what it was, but a thin gruel is preferable to an empty bowl.

As a kid, I never could have imagined that Sports Illustrated would ever go away. Now I can’t imagine what, in this media environment, could possibly replace it.