When was the last time SI covered NASCAR seriously? And why do I have the feeling it was the 2001 Daytona 500?
If they wouldn’t give it to Jimmy Johnson after his fifth straight Cup, I doubt they’ll ever give it to anyone in NASCAR. The only name probably even on SI’s radar for this year is Dale Jr., since he’s retiring and a major fan favorite (you have to go back to 2002 to find someone else winning NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver award), but he’s a very large longshot.
Altuve had a hell of a year, but Tom Brady’s second half performance was the greatest 15-30 minutes of football ever played by a single player. I’m normally not one to let a single performance overshadow a season’s worth of work, but considering that it was on America’s biggest sports stage, I’d find it hard to argue with giving it to Brady, and especially given his age. Brady’s not always had the most prolific stats, but he just performs and wills his teams to win with an automaton-like consistency that I can’t remember since the days of Michael Jordan. The NFL will not be the same once he’s gone. And we probably won’t see a player like him for another generation - perhaps two.
That would have disqualified Mike Krzyzewski and Pat Summit in 2011 (coaches), Arthur Ashe in 1992 (retired 12 years earlier), Don Shula in 1993, the entire slate of winners in 1987, Paterno in 1986, Pete Rozelle in 1963. I’m guessing that Sports Illustrated has a much more lenient understanding of the word “performance” than just what takes place on the field.
. Paterno, Summit, Krzyzewski were all about wins. Im not sure how that invalidates anything. 87 was an anomaly that I haven’t tracked down yet. Roselle they outright say they were departing from tradition even though he was only the 9th recipient. He got it for saving football from a gambling scandal no one even remembers. So yes there have been a few that don’t exactly fit but the have never done anything like “the protestors.” They pick a person or a team. It’s their magazine and they can pick a zamboni if they want but I highly doubt they will depart that far.
The only time you’ll see any mention of NASCAR in SI these days is in the short blurbs on the first few pages of the magazine, mixed in with the deaths of 1930s Olympic medal winners and female kickers in high school football. Even in the period after the NBA and NHL championships, when only baseball is in season, NASCAR still doesn’t get any long form coverage.
1987’s award was to “Athletes Who Care,” and featured eight athletes who were recognized for charity and humanitarian work.
Too late to edit: and, thus, I suppose it does set a precedent for potentially honoring J.J. Watt this year.
Why not George Springer in light of his MVP performance during the Series?
With Altuve, I’ll admit he had a great season and he’s the likely AL MVP. However, barring injury, he’s just entering his peak performance years. As good as he is now, there’s still a lot more he could do. I have a feeling in ten years 2017 will be considered just a typical Altuve season.
I’m not sure it is consistent with the history of the award to give it to a person just for winning the World Series MVP. They did do it three years ago, with Madison Bumgarner, but Bumgarner’s award was not just for being WS MVP, but given in light of the fact he was also the NLCS MVP and it was his third World Series title in five years and he’d been unhittable in all of them.
I guess it isn’t impossible - they gave half the award to Curt Schilling in 2001 for some reason - but Springer doesn’t seem like the story of the year, if you will, the way Altuve does.
2017 was Altuve’s age 27 season, so there is a fairly good chance this is the best he will ever be; 27 is the mean peak year for a professional baseball player, and it is difficult to be better than “best player in the league and then he hit seven home runs in the playoffs.” He doesn’t have to get better, he just has to be 80% this good and stay healthy for 7-10 years and he’s a Hall of Famer and will contribute to more championship teams.
Like I said they can give it to a zamboni if they want. When participating in a round of idle speculation all we have to go on is past practice. Past practice is that the one factor they use most is winning. Chances are they will continue to do so but there is nothing stopping them from bucking tradition.
SI also takes “community” into account now. I have a feeling the only reason LeBron won last year was because it was Cleveland’s first major sports title since the Indians won the World Series in 1948, and he pretty much “came back to Cleveland to get the city a title.”
No doubt. That’s why I’m guessing Altuve. They could pick the Astros as a whole but they usually pick individuals.
In some ways, Kaepernick would be the perfect sportsman of the year. But SI probably won’t do it because they’re worried about losing whatever ad revenue they have left.
Then why not pick the NBA champions? The Warriors also stood up to Trump, and actually accomplished something besides being a mediocre out of Work quarterback with a following of non-sports fans who see a conspiracy.
This would be my pick. The first back to back Cup winners in years.
As for the “Altuve and the Astros” pick I HATE when SI does this— pick an entire team. Its a cheap way out. That said I wouldnt be surprised because of the hurricane.
Football players are so hard because the season is only 1/2 over when the award come out and if you award it its for your performance in 3-4 games waaaaay back in January.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I guess in any way that has nothing to do with sports or performance or anything else it’s supposed to be about. In 2017 he played one game. January 1st. He threw 215 yards and lost. Lose ad revenue. Make it a political statement instead of a sports award. Turn it into a joke. Sure, perfect.
But the reality is that sports has become highly politicized. 2017 is the year that sports become more politicized than at any time since probably the late 1960s when Muhammad Ali refused to join the draft. Colin Kaepernick made a political statement, but he wasn’t the one who politicized American pro sports. It was initially the Bay Area police officers who did that by threatening to not do their security duty at Levi’s Stadium. Then the owners made it even more political by refusing to hire him. Then the president made it even more political. And the owners again acted to make it a full-blow PR crisis by threatening other players who joined in the protests. In 2017, sports is politics, and politics is sport. In some ways, Kaepernick would be perfect. But again, I don’t think SI has the balls to do it.
SI’s sister magazine, Time, has named a Person of the Year (formerly Man of the Year) since 1927; I suspect that that the Man of the Year was an inspiration for the SI title.
Time states that they give their title to the person (or, on occasion, idea, group, or object) that “for better or for worse… has done the most to influence the events of the year.” Given the “for worse” end of their criterion, they have, on occasion, caused some controversy by naming widely-reviled people (e.g., Hitler, Stalin, Krushchev) – many people view (or assume) the Man of the Year to be an honor, which it often is, but Time has noted that it can go to the infamous, as well.
SI, on the other hand, states that the Sportsperson of the Year is “the athlete or team whose performance that year most embodies the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement.” Under their criterion, it’s harder to see them making a controversial choice, or a choice whose achievements for the year were off the field, like Kaepernick.
Well, if they literally go with “Altuve and the Astros” that’s close enough to “Jose Altuve.”
It’s not like they usually get this right anyway.
As I said earlier, I have a feeling Curry and Durant aren’t the favorites is, SI doesn’t like giving it to the same sport in consecutive years. From the looks of it, the one time SI did it (not counting the “Athletes Who Care” in 1987) was 1983 (Mary Decker) and 1984 (Edwin Moses).
At least until 2001, where the conventional wisdom is, the reason Rudy Giuliani was chosen over Osama bin Laden was, the “real” winner was “our readers and advertisers, See, We Didn’t Give It To The Bad Guy, DON’T LEAVE US LIKE YOU DID IN 1979!!!” (when Ayatollah Khomeini was chosen)
I am also convinced that the real, or at least primary, criteria for choosing Sportsman of the Year is, “Whoever the editors think will sell the most magazines, but it has to be sports-related as otherwise swimsuit models would win every year.”
