The Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx
Whoever it was that said a little fame never hurt anybody was never on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
The SI cover jinx is an urban legend that states that individuals or teams who appear on the cover of the magazine will subsequently experience misfortune. SI tried to address the topic in a January 2002 issue, in which the magazine interviewed sports psychologist Jim Loehr, who called the jinx "a failure to efficiently metabolize heightened expectations." In layman’s terms, the "jinxed" cover subjects merely choked under the extra attention. (The "jinx" applies to athletes and teams that appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated Kids, too.)
Here are some recent examples of the SI cover jinx.
