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Jeremy Lin's Toughest Opponent: The Sports Illustrated Cover Curse
By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 14, 2012
Modified Feb 14, 2012
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By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 14, 2012
Modified Feb 14, 2012
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Sports Illustrated may love its readers enough to give them sexy swimsuit models every year, but it sure hates Knicks fans. Because the cover of this week's regular issue features point guard Jeremy Lin. STOP THE LINSANITY!!!!!
As everyone knows, there's a Sports Illustrated cover curse—a curse so renowned that even SI had to acknowledge it—wherein landing on the cover means the athlete will likely be jinxed. For instance, look at these recent cover victims, via Wikipedia:
- January 8, 2012: The Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers appears on the cover as the 2012 NFL playoffs begin. The Packers lose to the New York Giants at home, 37-20, and Rodgers has a quarterback rating of 78.5. - January 22, 2012 - The San Francisco 49ers were featured on the cover of SI for January 23rd, They subsequently lost in overtime to the New York Giants 20-17. - January 30, 2012 & February 6, 2012 (cover date) - The New England Patriots's quarterback Tom Brady and Owner Robert Kraft were featured on the cover in consecutive weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. On February 5, 2012, the Patriots went on to lose a second consecutive Super Bowl appearance against the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, 17-21.
Terry McDonnell told the Daily News, "Jeremy Lin has done more in these past five games to captivate a fan base than any player in NBA history - and not just with his historic statistics. Look at what’s going on in this city."
But one Knicks fan from Westchester said, "It’s never a good omen. You don’t want that hanging over you. If he tears his ACL, they’ll say, ‘There goes the cover curse.’" But Lin himself would say, "There goes God"—the devout Christian told the media today, "Anytime something like this happens, a lot of stuff has to be put into place, and a lot of it is out of my control. If you look back at my story, doesn't matter where you look, but God's fingerprints are all over the place where there have been a lot of things that had to happen that I couldn't control."
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jeremy lin
linsanity
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sports illustrated cover curse
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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