The Australian Open finals were held on the weekend before the Super Bowl, opening up the possibility that Sports Illustrated would come out with a cover that wasn’t about football. (Especially since their Super Bowl preview had appeared the week before.) The victors in Melbourne were two 35-year-olds, one – Serena Williams – who made history, and one – Roger Federer – who, in beating his arch rival Rafael Nadal, conclusively made his case for Greatest of All Time.
I waited all week for my issue to arrive in the mail. And waited. I went to Bob’s News and found the Super Bowl preview issue still on the rack. “That’s the last one we received,” I was told. I went to the library and found the same issue. Finally, I called Sports Illustrated and learned that no issue had been published after the Super Bowl preview. The premier sports magazine in America decided to take a week off rather than put a tennis player on its cover.
