Sports Illustrated jinxes the team (player) on the cover, It's true!!!

Sports Illustrated is a good magazine, don't get me wrong. But there's a problem with releasing weekly magazines for sports: sports headlines are always changing. Just look at Yahoo! Sports. Their front page changes several times each day. Why? Because sports are constantly changing. Just look at this week's cover: It's the rising sensation for the New York Knicks, Jeremy Lin. Lin is a great basketball story and he's been a reason for the Knicks recent success, but today against the Heat, Linsanity was hushed and held to only a sniffle as Miami ran them out of the building, 102-88. Lin was Linane as he went 1-11 shooting. Why? For many reasons: the Heat are a good team, he was probably sick, and because he made Sports Illustrated's cover for the second week in a row! This is what SI does. Since a magazine is obviously not the internet, there is no constant feed of information to change what's been done. Once a magazine is printed, those headlines have been set in stone (or ink). Here are a few jinxes from SI in recent memory.

No other sporting event has more coverage than the Super Bowl and no other team had more SI coverage than the New England Patriots. During the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots made the SI cover, twice. One with Tom Brady and one with Robert Kraft. The Patriots ended up losing by a few inches when they had a great chance to win the game. Why? As Eli Manning said: "I'm not superstitious, but I am a little-stitious."

I was surprised when the 49ers beat the Saints in the Divisional round of this year's playoffs, but I wasn't surprised when the 49ers lost to the Giants for the right to go to the Super Bowl. Why? Cause San Francisco was picked to lose to the New Orleans Saints, but they did not because they pulled off one of the more memorable playoff come-backs. The problem is, the 49ers lost that surprise factor the very next week. They were picked to go to the Super Bowl over the eventual Super Bowl champs, the New York Giants, but they lost the game in devastating fashion. The 49ers were in a position to win the game, but they let that opportunity slip through their fingers. I guess I'm just a little-stitious...

The Green Bay Packers... now they're a team that could handle all the hype about being undefeated, but wait a second they went 15-1... well they were a team that could handle the playoff pressure, but wait they lost in the first round to Eli Manning's Giants... Well they certainly did live up to the hype of an explosive regular season offense after the SI preseason NFL preview magazine that featured the Packers on the cover. They carried that hype all the way to Kansas City, where they suffered their first loss. But hey, no jinx, right? Wrong! They made the cover for the NFL playoff preview issue and ended up losing to the New York Football Giants, the eventual Super Bowl champs. I guess you can see why I'm a little-stitious, right?

You're probably starting to think one of two things: this is kinda like the Madden curse, or Eli Manning is always involved in these issues. Well, it's kinda like the Madden curse and I only wrote this post because everyone in sports is a "little-stitious". Just look at Tim Tebow. That throwing motion screams "losing!", but Timothy managed to pull off a few miracles with that south-paw sling. One miracle includes the Chicago Bears win where Tebow led the Broncos to FG range twice and won 13-10 OT after being down 10-0 late in the 4th quarter. Once the Tebow train picked up speed with this winning streak, it was slammed to a sudden halt by the Brady bunch. Pray that you don't make the cover of Sports Illustrated.

The now-evident Sports Illustrated curse differs from the Madden curse for one reason: SI covers all sports. This includes a curse for the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox were a victim of one of the greatest collapses in regular season sports as they choked towards the end of their season and let the Tampa Bay Rays miraculously leap-frog them in the Wild Card standings. The collapse was so dramatic that a week before, poster and bus signs were put up for the Red Sox in the post season on TBS. They lost their slipping hold on the Wild Card berth as Jonathon Papelbon, the beloved closer of the BoSox, blew a save to the lowly Baltimore Orioles on the last day of the regular season. That blown save capped off one of the greatest collapses in all of sports.

This one is my favorite. As an Arizona Wildcats fan, I was shocked to see the Bruins on the cover instead of the Wildcats. However, as the season rolled by, I saw it as a blessing in disguise: UCLA was crushed by Loyola Marymount and Middle Tennessee State and stumbled to a 2-5 start instead of a predicted 6-1 start. Things got so bad for the Bruins that Reeves Nelson, their star player on the cover, was dismissed from the team. He always gave me the creeps cause of his tattoo sleeves (not that there's anything wrong with tattoos), but things got so bad that his mother even called him out for his bad behavior. I just hope the Cats can pull this thing out and sneak into the NCAA Tournament with as little coverage as possible...

The Rematch with the same conclusion: the New York Football Giants are once again Super Bowl champs

The New York Football Giants upset the New England Patriots in the game of the year once again, after hanging on to a 21-17 win. Super Bowl XLVI was a rematch of one of the greatest upsets in a championship game in sports history as Eli Manning willed the Giants to a last minute victory against Tom Brady and the Patriots. Four years later doesn't make much of a difference... The Patriots were once again the favorites, but not by 12 points. This time they were only favored by a 3-point margin. New England won the coin-toss and elected to differ, letting America see the Giants take the ball first in this year's Super Bowl. The Giants came out of the gates with a healthy dose of running and passing,  but their drive halted at midfield. Scott Weatherford came on to punt for the Giants and ended up pinning the Patriots deep. On the ensuing play, Tom Brady was flagged for intentional grounding as he threw the ball away just as Justin Tuck slammed him to the ground. With two-points for the Giants, they would receive the ball and capitalize on a short Victor Cruz TD catch. The first quarter came winding to a close, but in the second quarter, Tom Brady lit up Lucas Oil Stadium. The Patriots would put together two long drives in a short amount of time to go up 17-9 at the half. After Madonna's half-time performance, the two teams would return to the field. Brady tweaked his shoulder on a play and would never be the same as the Giants capitalized. Lawrence Tynes would kick two field goals to draw the margin to only two points. Needing only the ball and a field goal to win, New York was desperate to get a stop on defense. Just then, Wes Welker dropped a key first down pass that would have iced the game. The Giants got the ball back and would do what they did four years ago: score a TD after a miraculous catch. That is just what Mario Manningham did as he caught a 38 yard pass and tapped his toes in bounds to get the Giants at midfield. Bill Belichick would challenge the play, but ended up losing a key time out. Before you knew it, the Giants were already in field goal range and trying to eat up the clock. Belichick would let Ahmad Bradshaw score with about a minute to go and only one timeout. But even Tom Terrific can't make miracles happen as his Hail Mary fell to ground, incomplete in front of his biggest play-maker, Rob Gronkowski.

Patriots top the Ravens for a trip to Super Bowl XLVI, 23-20

Tom Brady will return to the Super Bowl for the 5th time in his career. He didn't necessarily will the Patriots with a stellar passing performance, in fact he didn't even have a TD toss, but the Patriots survived a well-prepared Ravens team. The Ravens were able to hit hard and keep Brady under check. Their defense did just about everything they could possibly do to limit an explosive New England pass attack, but they didn't limit the run game. The Patriots could run on the Ravens which led to some scoring drives, but only 2 TDs. Baltimore had the exact opposite situation as they passed well, but rushed poorly. The Ravens took a 20-16 lead in the fourth quarter, but Brady would lead the Patriots down the field and cap off the drive with a QB sneak. Baltimore would get the ball back late in the game and they almost won the game, but Lee Evans dropped a game-winner and Billy Cundiff would miss a 32-yard game-tying FG. Brady will go on to play at Indy against either the team that beat him in hose last trip, the Giants, or his childhood team, the 49ers.

Patriots rout the Broncos, 45-10

Tebow never had a shot against the Pats. The game was over on the first drive as Brady out on a show by doing just about everything Tebow couldn't do, like throwing the ball. Terrific Tom would lead the Brady Bunch by tossing 6 TDs (an NFL playoff record) with three of them to his pass-catching tight end, Rob Gronkowski. The Broncos defense simply never showed up as Brady ripped them for big play after big play and touchdown after touchdown. Tebow definitely didn't help Denver's cause as he went 9-26 with only 136 yards. In the end, New England was simply the better team as they will host next week's AFC Championship game.

Patriots climb out of a 17 point hole, beat the Dolphins 27-24

The Patriots clinched a first round bye in dramatic fashion: climbing out of a 17 point hole to the inferior AFC East rival Dolphins. A few Matt Moore orchestrated drives and a poor pass defense from the Patriots left the crowd in Foxborough stunned. The second half was totally different, though. Tom Brady brought the Pats back to lead them to their 12th win and 7th in a row to clinch a first week bye in the playoffs.

Patriots end the Broncos winning streak, 41-23

Tim Tebow hype should die down a bit after the Patriots romped the Broncos, but so should the Denver hype. Denver showed lots of heart and emotion like a college team, but they also committed many mistakes like a college team. That's what you get when you have a college quarterback, but when you play a HOF QB, you're toast. There was no chance for Tebow Time as Bill Belicheck ended the 6-game winning streak with ease.

Brady bunches up the Chiefs, 34-3

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots made sure they would avoid a letdown on MNF against the Matt Cassel-less Chiefs at Arrowhead. Rob Gronkowski caught 2 TD, including a magnificent leap into the end zone. Tyler Palko and the Chiefs could only put a Ryan Succop field goal on the score board. New England is now once again placed in the elite category in the AFC.

Super Bowl XLII Rematch: same result, Giants win

The rematch of Super Bowl XLII was almost like the actual game that took place in Glendale, AZ 2008. The Patriots were favorites, Manning was being criticized, Brady was on a hot-streak, and even the uniform colors were the same. The first three quarters had virtually no scoring but things blew open in the 4th quarter. Brady threw to Gronkowski to put the Pats up 20-17 late in the 4th, but Manning was given the ball back with little time left. Manning had a tremendous throw and catch to #85, but it wasn't Tyree it was Ballard. A few plays later, Manning threw a jump ball to the corner of the end zone to Ballard as time expired. Can you say Dejá vu? Giants won 24-20 and the Patriots lose control of the AFC East.

Bills shock the Patriots, 34-31

Buffalo QB Ryan Fitzpatrick proved that the Bills aren't to be taken lightly anymore. After New England jumped out to an early 21-0 lead, the game seemed over before halftime. Buffalo would then draw within 4 points. After consecutive scores, the Bills found themselves on top with a 31-24 lead over the Patriots, but Tom Brady would engineer a scoring drive to tie the game with 3 minutes to go. Guess what! Fitzpatrick can also lead his team down the field and score game winning field goals just like the Patriots and they did just that when Rian Lindell punched in the game winner when time expired. Brady seemed human after throwing 4 picks and giving Buffalo a chance to come back. Fitzpatrick on the other hand looked like a Harvard man who knew the chance of a lifetime opportunity when he led the lowly Bills to an impressive 3-0 start. (maybe the white helmets make them play better)

Brady throws for 517 yards and 4 TDs, Pats roll on Monday Night

Tom Brady threw for 517 yards and 4 TDs during a Monday Night duel against Chad Henne and the Miami Doplhins. Both QBs impressed however the Patriots managed to get the easy win. Brady had one early mistake by throwing his first interception in 358 attempts, but was spot on for the rest of the night. It took Henne a while to get things started for Miami as he threw for 416 yards, but the game was out of reach by then. New England has routed Miami once again after last years impressive rout in Miami on Monday Night. New England's offense looked better than last year as they racked up a total of 622 yards. Despite the large margin, the game was an aerial show as the quarterbacks threw for a combined total of 906 yards in the game, an NFL single game record.