Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx

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The Sports Illustrated Jinx is a myth that states that individuals or teams who appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated magazine will experience bad luck at varying lengths into the future.

While the list of "examples" of the jinx may be extensive, an individual record 49 cover appearances by Michael Jordan did not hinder his success. Similarly, Vince Young also overcame the Sport Illustrated jinx by appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated twice during Texas' National Championship season. ^[1]

SI addressed their own opinions on the "alleged" cover jinx in a 2002 issue that featured a black cat on the cover.

1 Explanation
2 See also
3 Further reading
4 References

[edit] Explanation

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The most common explanation for the perceived effect is the observation that athletes are generally featured on the cover at the pinnacle of their careers, so future performance is likely to be less impressive by comparison. This subsequent decline in performance would then be perceived as being related to, or even possibly caused by, the appearance on the magazine cover. This perceived correlation would be present for a statistically significant number of featured athletes. This effect is related to the statistical phenomenon of regression toward the mean.

This explanation does not, of course, apply to rookies who are prominent enough to be featured relatively early in their careers. Such athletes could be perceived as being unaffected by, or even "immune" to, the jinx.

This explanation also assumes that athletes are featured only after they have achieved a fairly high level of fame, which has taken at least half of the total timespan of their careers to attain, before being considered as a cover subject.

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

Wolff, Alexander. "Unraveling the Jinx." SportsIllustrated.com. January 15, 2002.
———. "That Old Black Magic." Sports Illustrated. January 21, 2002, 50–61.