That injury to Ohtani pretty much knocks him out of the running.
Personally, I would give it to the City of Las Vegas, and put players/executives from the Golden Knights, Aces, Raiders, and A’s on the cover. Somebody needs to start a “move the Kings to Las Vegas” rumor…
However, I think the favorite is Mahomes.
Possibilities:
Messi - but men’s soccer still isn’t that big of a deal; how many times has it been on the cover at all, and of those, how many were Pele?
Griner - but she’s hardly been mentioned since being released.
Way too early look at 2024: I’ll say the same thing that I did in 2021 - if she wins the Olympic all-around gymnastics title, they seriously consider Simone Biles. Then again, if Sydney McLaughlin wins the 400 as well, they go with my other standby - all of the women on the USA Olympic team.
He may not be able to make the playoffs, but boy has he made a splash in Miami. They won League’s Cup with the sidelines filled with celebs. And Inter Miami now has more instagram followers than every other team in the US except for a couple of NBA teams (Lakers I know are one).
I think Messi is definitely in the running and may just get it.
If the award should go to “the athlete or team whose performance that year most embodies the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement” then Messi really has to be the clear choice.
Griner could make it as “athlete prominent in the news”, but not based on the above.
Agreed. Too bad, too, because he’s turning a whole sport on its ear.
Considering the impact he’s making in MLS, I agree.
Mahomes is an obvious choice, but he was a partial winner just three years ago, and a QB (Brady) just won it in 2021.
If Rory McIlroy had managed to win just one of the majors he almost won this year, he might be a good candidate for standing up to Monahan while also refusing to take the Saudis’ blood money.
If Noah Lyles repeats in Paris the triple gold medals he just won at the World Championships in Budapest - winningthe 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay - he’d have a strong case; no one’s done this since Usain Bolt.
Courtney Dauwalter is running the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc this weekend. If she wins it, then choosing anyone other than her would be a travesty - six weeks after setting a course record at the Western States Endurance Race, she did the very same thing at the Hardrock 100, arguably an even tougher 100 mile race. Nobody is dominating their sport the way she is this year.
I’m old enough to remember when Mary Decker won SotY for a similar reason – she was dominating women’s distance running like no one ever had. Women’s track in the 80s wasn’t huge – when has it ever been? – so it’s not utterly impossible that someone from a fringe sport like ultramarathon could win. She seems like a great candidate.
Courtney Dauwalter just won UTMB, her third 100+ mile, 30,000+ vertical change race in three months, the first person ever to win Western States, the Hardrock 100, and UTMB in one calendar year. There’s no other athlete having the kind of year she is.
Cyclists Greg LeMond (1989) and Lance Armstrong (2002) won the award, and arguably, road cycling is pretty niche in the U.S., especially compared to the big five team sports (gridiron football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer).
That said, both men did get a lot of publicity in the U.S. for winning the Tour de France, and even if cycling is a niche sport here, it’s still far more visible than ultramarthon running. I agree, even if an ultramarthoner is having an amazing year, SI isn’t going to give it to an athlete whom most Americans have never heard of, in a sport that most of them haven’t heard of, either.
I know. It just pisses me off that an athlete who is having a historic, once-in-a-lifetime year is going to be passed over just because her sport isn’t as popular as football or basketball. Also because (IMHO), running a 100-mile mountain race is much harder, and much more impressive, than being one member of a team that wins a Super Bowl or a World Cup. YMMV, of course.
Yeah, but most Americans have at least head of road cycling and the Tour. I have never heard of UTMB, Western States or the Hardrock 100 and have no idea what “vertical change racing” is.
The timing of that is problematic. SI usually announces their winner around December 7th; the 2023 Heisman Award winner will be announced on December 9th. If Williams wins the Heisman this year, it’ll come too late to affect SI’s decision.
I don’t think a college athlete has ever been SOTY, except maybe someone who was in the Olympics that year as well. Coaches, yes, but not athletes. Archie Griffin won two Heismans, and he didn’t get it.
