Once a media giant, Sports Illustrated has stumbled in recent years. Ownership changes, financial struggles, and scandals like AI-generated articles have taken their toll. Declining readership and loss of talent further hurt the magazine. With the recent license revocation and layoffs, its future hangs in the balance. Though beloved by many, Sports Illustrated’s fate remains uncertain in a changing media landscape.
The dust hasn’t settled on SI’s decline, and amidst the uncertainty, voices from the magazine’s golden age are rising. Legendary figures like Peter King, whose “Monday Morning Quarterback” column once defined the publication, are sharing their reflections on the crumbling of this industry titan.
King offered his poignant perspective on his former employer’s challenges during a recent appearance on Stupodity from the Le Batard and Friends Network.
“When Tom Brady won Sportsman of the Year in 2005, his dad and mom were at the event in New York City, and I was there,” recalled King. “Tom gets his award; everybody congratulates him; it’s a nice night. Tom Brady’s dad comes up and he said, ‘I want you to understand what this award means to Tommy and our family. When Tommy was growing up, obviously, we got Sports Illustrated, and every Thursday in the fall, he would come in the door. He would immediately look for Sports Illustrated to see if they had written anything about the 49ers. Every week when he was growing up.’
“Look, the bottom line in this is there isn’t a Sports Illustrated now. It doesn’t exist. If you’re gonna look back 50 years from now at the Kansas City-Buffalo game and you want to read something about that game, what’re you gonna read? I’m sure that maybe you could find some old internet clip from some site, but there isn’t like a body of evidence like the SI vault to be doing this stuff anymore, and that is the saddest thing of all. We’re losing the ability — as one person said who wrote to me this week, ‘Where’s the next Frank Deford? Are we ever gonna be able to have one place for great writing?’
“Now, The Athletic, I think, is good. I think The Ringer’s good. But, you tell me, how long are those places going to be alive? They could be alive for 50 years — I’m not saying they won’t be. But internet sites, look at Grantland; Grantland was great. All of a sudden, one day, poof, it’s gone. I’m just sad because there are so many people. You know, there are 3.1 million homes that went into when I was working there. And there was no bigger thrill than opening the mailbox on Thursday and me opening the box thinking, ‘Man, I gotta see how my cover looks this week.’ It’s just euphoric; it’s just a high of highs.
“Look, that’s a selfish thing, but I’m thinking for America. You’re really gonna miss what was the magazine of record and what was the best sports magazine of all time.”
Sports Illustrated’s fate hangs in the balance, but its legacy is a powerful reminder of what we stand to lose in a fragmented media landscape.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.