Sports Illustrated February 2023

IN AN UNFORGETTABLE EVENING AT The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on Dec. 8, Sports Illustrated celebrated its 2022 Sportsperson of the Year Awards presented by Chase alongside several honorees whose impact and achievements have transcended the world of sports. Warriors coach Steve Kerr and teammates Klay Thompson and Draymond Green were on hand to present four-time NBA champion and 2022 NBA Finals MVP Stephen Curry with the title award, recognizing the All-Star guard for not only his outstanding athletic dominance but also his incredible philanthropic work with the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, helping to improve the lives of kids and families in the Bay Area and across the country. The 2022 SI Muhammad Ali Legacy Award recognized track and field icon Allyson Felix, an athlete who changed not only her sport…

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FOR THE first time in 72 years of executive leadership, the NCAA has gone outside its own campuses or national office to find a president. Given the state of affairs in the college sports landscape, this seems like a fine time to shatter the status quo and try something different. Starting March 1, outgoing Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, will be the new president of the NCAA. Hiring a sitting governor is a significant break from the established pattern of college administrators in that role, be they school athletic directors or university presidents or NCAA bureaucrats. It continues the industrywide trend of moving away from the kind of leaders who have steered it into the current quagmire. Like predecessor Mark Emmert, Baker might turn out to be little more than the…

PERFORMANCES ARE magnified at the Super Bowl. If a player is a hero on that stage in sports, he’ll be remembered forever. The same holds for gambling results: The game has yielded some of the most epic bad beats in history: Super Bowl XXXV, under 33 A game featuring the league’s two best defenses, the Giants and the Ravens, had what was tied for lowest over/under in Super Bowl history. The matchup was a sluggish affair. Baltimore led 10–0 with 19 minutes to play before three TDs in less than a minute—none by the offense. Jamal Lewis (above) and the Ravens tacked on 10 points in the fourth, and somehow a game that featured just 24 combined first downs ended 34–7. Super Bowl LIV, Patrick Mahomes over rushing yards Depending on the…

ALL IN: MIRACLE AT ST. BERNARD’S (Now on VOD) In the first 10 minutes of the excellent, uplifting documentary All In, St. Bernard’s, the smallest high school to play football in Massachusetts, wins the state title with 34 players. But following the season, the Diocese of Worcester informs the school that it could be shuttered. Enrollment at the 100-year-old institution in Fitchburg, which had been around 500 at the turn of the century, was down to barely 100. Led by a new principal with no experience running a school, the St. Bernard’s community members come up with a plan: Break away from the diocese and run the school themselves. To do that, they have to raise $1 million. As the head of the fundraising committee points out, it’s hard to get people…

SUPER BOWL XXXII was going to be special for John W. McDonough no matter what happened. It was in his hometown of San Diego, so he got to play host to the bevy of photographers SI sent. It became even more special when he captured one of the most iconic moments in NFL history: the Helicopter Play. Late in the third quarter, with the score tied at 17, the Broncos faced third-and-6 at the Green Bay 12. Denver QB John Elway was hit by three Packers as he scrambled, sending him spinning parallel to ground. He got the first down, and the Broncos went on to score a TD and win the game 31–24. McDonough was positioned in the stands at the opposite end of Qualcomm Stadium, where he watched the action…