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Sports Illustrated’s Funeral

Sports Illustrated’s Funeral

Frank Michael Smith
December 04, 2023

Sports Illustrated’s Funeral

It’s been a rough week for Sports Illustrated.

The once royal brand got caught using AI writers.

When asked about it…they promptly deleted everything.

Screenshots are forever.

Full transparency, this story makes me sick.

I have zero nice things to say about the future of AI in sports writing.

There exists passionate/talented people who would cut a finger off to write for an iconic brand like S.I.

I could easily continue to bash S.I., but we all get the point…

Using AI to write your articles is low quality, lazy, and borderline pathetic.

Instead, I’ll add some perspective to the ungraceful fall off.

Let’s remember the good times.

Below are 5 of my favorite covers of all-time:

Dream Team (February 18th, 1991)

Published before the ‘92 Olympics in Barcelona, a preview of the greatest team to ever grace the court. The Dream Team is widely considered to be the moment that inspired the rest of the world to play basketball.

Miracle On Ice (March 3rd, 1980)

The greatest underdog story in sports history. The US took down the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics.

Lynn Swann (January 26th, 1976)

Swann makes one of the greatest grabs in NFL history as the Steelers won their 2nd Super Bowl.

LeBron James (February 18th, 2002)

Nothing symbolized the absurd levels hype surrounding LeBron quite like this cover. It was his first appearance on the world stage. Impossibly, he lived up to being named “The Chosen One”.