DECEMBER 15, 2023 | VOLUME 134 | NO.

12

BIGGER IN TEXAS
San Antonio’s 7' 4" rookie, Victor Wembanyama, wasted little
GREG NELSON

time making his mark on the 2023 sports landscape.

WINTER 2023 • SI.COM • 1

Recipes with high-quality, natural*
ingredients to help dogs live full
and active lives.

*Natural dog food plus vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. © 2023 Mars or Affiliates.
 LINEUP

NO LOOKING BACK
Simone Biles’s return to form
has fans eagerly awaiting next
summer’s Paris Olympics.

DEPARTMENTS

SCORECARD P. 4 FACES IN THE CROWD P. 16 POINT AFTER P. 88

T H I S P A G E : T O M G O Y VA E R T S / B E L G A M A G /A F P/ G E T T Y I M A G E S ; O N T H E C O V E R : M A K E U P B Y B E T H WA L K E R F O R B W M A K E U P ; H A I R F O R

S U N G L A S S E S B Y B L E N D E R S X C O A C H P R I M E ; WAT C H B Y C A R T I E R . O N C O N S TA N C E S C H WA R T Z- M O R I N I : S W E AT E R B Y A + O X B A S Q U I AT;
D E I O N S A N D E R S B Y D E R M O N I C O T O W N S E N D ; S T Y L I N G B Y C A S E Y T R U D E A U . O N D E I O N S A N D E R S : T O P, P A N T S A N D H AT B Y N I K E X C U ;

S K I R T B Y A L I C E A N D O L I V I A ; S H O E S B Y C H A N E L ; B R A C E L E T B Y C A R T I E R ; O N S A M M O R I N I : S W E AT S H I R T A N D P A N T S B Y C H E R R Y L A

FEATURES

18 32 35
SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR SPORTSKID 23 FOR ’23
Deion Sanders didn’t just revitalize a moribund OF THE YEAR When we reflect
Colorado football program. He brought new life With all due on 2023, what will
to campus and helped transform a community respect to stay with us? Here
BY PAT FORDE Coach Prime: Only are the people,
two sports? It’s moments and
ON THE COVER: DEION SANDERS AND THE TEAM BEHIND nearly impossible to trends that made it
PRIME (LEFT TO RIGHT): SHELOMI SANDERS, keep track of how a most memorable
S H E D E U R S A N D E R S , C O N S T A N C E S C H WA R T Z- M O R I N I , many Fifi Garcia year—and will
S H I L O S A N D E R S , R AY F O R S E T T, D E I O N S A N D E R S J R . , dominates shape memories for
S A M MORINI, PHIL DIS T EFA NO, RICK GEORGE, PEGGY COPPOM BY SAM PAGE years to come

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WINTER 2023 • SI.COM • 3

 HONEY BUNCHES
OF GOATS
A day before signing with
MLS club Inter Miami, Lionel
Messi instantly established
his Florida Man credentials
by appearing in a Publix
grocery store, in shower
slides, buying Froot Loops
and Lucky Charms.
 BROOM SHTICK
After kissing a Women’s World Cup
champion on the mouth, throw-
ing another over his shoulder and
ESSAY grabbing his crotch in the presence
of Spain’s Queen Letizia and her

One Hot teenage daughter, Spanish football

federation president Luis Rubiales

Mess said he was the victim of a “witch

hunt” by “false feminists.”

LADY OF SPAIN, I IGNORE YOU

ONCE AGA I N, TH E Y E A R I N SP ORTS
WA S F I L L E D W I T H S U B L I M E M O M E N T S O F
B R I L L I A N C E — A N D T H I S S T U F F, T O O
B Y S T E V E RUSHIN
IL L US T R AT IONS B Y H A RRISON F REEM A N
TOMATO, TOMAHTO
The resurgent Orioles distanced
themselves from the fan-bestowed
nickname for their home run
celebrat ions, which involved
shotgunning water from a hose
attached to a funnel. “It’s a homer
hose,” pitcher Kyle Gibson told
The Baltimore Sun, “not a, uh, a
dong bong.”
THE ALE THAT CURES YOU
While a 25-year-old Chelsea fan
was completing his quest to drink
2,000 pints of beer in 200 days,
TikTok followers debated whether
he was the “world’s greatest endur-
ance athlete” or the world’s “most
sober Chelsea fan.”
NASSAU ROVER
The Bahamas Bowl, whose slogan
is “Bowl Games Are Better in
the Bahamas,” will be played in
Charlotte, North Carolina.
TICKETED FOR TAILGATING
A truck spilled 40,000 pounds of
chicken onto I-285 in Atlanta two
and a half months after a truck
leaked 100 gallons of hot sauce
onto I-10 in El Paso.
MY BAD
Michigan State officials apolo-
gized for featuring an enormous
picture of Adolf Hitler on the
Spar tan Stadium v ideoboard
before its game against Michigan.
Though his 72-year-old mother
staged a hunger strike in a church
in Andalusia to protest what she
called the “inhuman and bloody
hunt that they are doing with my
son,” Rubiales resigned.
NEVER MIND
Two months after Grizzlies guard
Ja Morant apologized for bran-
dishing a gun on Instagram Live
in a Colorado strip club called
Shotgun Willie’s, he appeared
to brandish a gun on Instagram
Live in the shotgun seat of a
motor vehicle.
MERGER MOST FOUL
In June, a year after he invoked
9/11 to dissuade players from
defecting to the Saudi-backed
LIV Golf tour, PGA Tour commis-
sioner Jay Monahan announced
the “historic” merger of the PGA
and LIV tours.

YOU BELONG WITH MEH

Asked on the Today show what it was like to sit with
Taylor Swift at the Chiefs-Jets game, Donna Kelce—mother of
tight end Travis Kelce—said: “It was O.K.”

WINTER 2023 • SI.COM • 5

LET’S GET READY TO ROOMBA
T he f or me r M ic h i ga n f o o t-
ball staffer at the center of the
Wolverines’ sign-stealing scan-
dal, Connor Stalions, was sued
by his homeow ners a ssocia-
tion in Ann Arbor, according to
The Wall Street Journal, after filling
his front porch with used vacuum
cleaners he was trying to sell.

THE SIGN-STEALING
SCANDAL THAT DIDN’T
INVOLVE MICHIGAN
Authorities in a rural Ontario
t o w n d i s c u s s e d c h a ng i n g a
local street name after thieves
repeatedly stole signs for
Harry Dick Road.

SINKING PUTZ SUBWAY TOKIN’

Wearing only bikini briefs and a At the U.S. Open, Alexander Zverev said that Court 17, adjacent
mullet, a 27-year-old man sprinted to Corona Park and beyond, “smells like Snoop Dogg’s living room.
around the 16th green during the Oh my God, it’s everywhere. The whole court smells like weed.”
Phoenix Open, eluding security
temporarily by belly-flopping into
a water hazard.

FAMILIAR OPPONENTS NAKED BOOTLEG detonation of a beached sperm

Realignment left Oregon State and
Washington State, effective as of
2024, as the only teams in the
Pac-12, which was rechristened
the 2-Pac.
VANDAL SACKS ROME
A 27-year-old British tourist was
arrested for carving his name
into a wall of the 2,000-year-old
Roman Colosseum.
MEANWHILE, AT ANOTHER
RUINED COLISEUM
In announcing his retirement, A’s
pitcher Trevor May called owner
John Fisher a “greedy f---” and
urged him not to move the team,
saying: “Sell the team. . . . There’s
actually people who give a s---
about the game. . . . Take Mommy
and Daddy’s money somewhere
else, dork.”
A 29-year-old man, nude but cov-
ered in feces, scaled a 10-foot fence
and jumped into a construction
pit on the site of the Buffalo Bills’
future home field before a game
next door at Highmark Stadium.
THE FAN HIT THE S---
A law enforcement spokesman
said the man was under the influ-
ence of cocaine, marijuana and
LSD. Otherwise, the spokesman
said, “You wouldn’t be in a Porta-
Potty, jumping inside it, covering
yourself with human excrement.
You wouldn’t be doing that.”
WHERE THE BLUBBER
MEETS THE ROAD
T he Eugene Emera lds minor
league baseball team played four
games as the Exploding Whales
to commemorate the disastrous
whale, whose rotting carcass was
loaded with 20 cases of dynamite
on the Oregon coast in 1970 and
blown to smithereens, raining
blubber and whale meat on ter-
rified spectators, and crushing a
car in a nearby parking lot.
SEALING FAN
The U.S. Open women’s semifinal
was delayed for 50 minutes while
security in Arthur Ashe Stadium
tried to remove a climate change
protester who had glued his bare
feet to the floor.
ON FURTHER REVIEW . . .
A jury convicted FTX founder
Sam Bankman-Fried of defrauding
investors out of billions of dollars,
two years after endorser Tom Brady
called FTX “the safest and easiest
way to buy and sell crypto.”

6 • S P O R T S I L L U S T R AT E D • S I . C O M
We partnered with Sam Ryder
because he’s a great golfer.
Ok, his name didn’t hurt either.
Some partnerships just work. Teaming up with Ryder makes it easy. For supply
JOHPUKLKPJH[LK[YHUZWVY[H[PVUHUKÅLL[THUHNLTLU[ZVS\[PVUZ[VRLLW`V\Y
business moving, there’s one name to remember.

Sam Ryder
Tour Professional

Learn more at ryder.com/ryder

EX-BUC’S EX-BUCKS
As an FTX brand ambassador,
Br a d y w a s r e p or t e d l y p a i d
$30 million in the now worthless
stock of the now defunct company.
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLECH
After he correctly mentioned on
the air that Baltimore had lost 15
consecutive series at Tropicana
Field before June 2023, TV play-
by-play announcer Kevin Brown
was suspended for 16 games by
the Orioles.
GRAND THEFT TITO
“The Hog,” the beloved scooter
Terry Francona rode to the ball-
park for years, was stolen and
stripped for parts days before the
retiring Cleveland manager’s final
home game.
8 • S P O R T S I L L U S T R AT E D • S I . C O M
FILLET FANATIC
A 62-year-old man was charged
with pulling a knife on an umpire
at a Little League baseball game
in West Virginia, telling the man
in blue: “I’ll gut you right here.”
OLD SCHOOL
A 22-year-old basketball coach in
Portsmouth, Va., was fired after
she subbed herself into a girls JV
high school game.
HE WENT FROM
PHOENIX, ARIZONA, ALL
THE WAY TO A COMA
During the NBA All-Star Game
in Februar y, Charles Bark ley
praised the Salt Lake City locals,
saying: “These people are going
to heaven. . . . Ain’t nothing to do
in this boring-ass city.”
PIECEFUL PROTEST
Play was disrupted at Wimbledon
when protesters scattered a 1,000-
piece jigsaw puzzle of Centre Court
onto a different court.
ANTE SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
A 37-year-old California man
raised money to attend the World
Series of Poker in Las Vegas by tell-
ing GoFundMe donors—falsely—
that he had Stage IV colon cancer.
REPTILE
DYSFUNCTION
A man tried to enter a Phillies
game at Citizens Bank Park in
Philadelphia with his emotional
support alligator on a leash.
For parents of kids with food allergies

Help her keep

building
without milk
knocking
things down.
Help your kids navigate their
food allergies and focus on the
things they love.

Learn more and stay informed at

FoodAllergyStrategies.com

©2023 Genentech USA, Inc. and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. All rights reserved. M-US-00022000(v1.0) 10/23
SCORECARD: GAMEPLAN
WHAT A RIDE
B Y M A RK BE CH T EL
ORMULA ONE is clearly
F enjoying a surge in popu-
larity in the U.S., thanks
in part, as is often pointed out, to
the series Drive to Survive. But
while Netf lix has masterfully
ginned up some story lines, one
thing it can’t create is on-track
drama. Max Verstappen (page 73)
is the best driver piloting the best
car with the best team, and he
wrapped up the 2023 drivers’ title
1 0 • S P O R T S I L L U S T R AT E D • S I . C O M
Rooting for an underdog is futile.
That hasn’t always been the case.
In 2009 a new team, Brawn GP,
began competing after former
Ferrari technical director and head
of Honda Racing, Ross Brawn,
bought the dying Honda team for
£1. After the season it was sold to
Mercedes and rebranded. But in the
intervening 17 races it defied over-
whelming odds and won both the
drivers’ title, with Jenson Button.
The unlikely saga is recounted in
Hulu’s new four-part series Brawn:
The Impossible Formula 1 Story, told
largely through the voices of the
principals, most of whom seem as
amazed by what they accomplished
today—despite significant bumps
along the way—as they did 14 years
ago. (“We were lucky bastards!” is
a recurring theme.)
At this point I am required by
various solemn oaths that review-
ers are required to take to inform
you that the proceedings are nar-
rated by Keanu Reeves. And that
there are dramatic intonations
involved. While that sounds like
it might be a bit . . . much, Reeves
elevates the proceedings. The last
thing in the world Keanu wants to
F R O M T O P : C L I V E M A S O N / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; D A R R E N H E AT H / G E T T Y I M A G E S
do is harsh someone’s mellow. And
while watching the same driver
win race after race is impressive,
seeing a bunch of guys reminisce
about the best days of their lives
in wide-eyed wonder is something
even better. It’s fun.
ON THE BUTTON
The veteran English driver won
six of the first seven races of the
season and held on to give Brawn
an unlikely championship.
 NOTICE OF PROPOSED CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF
PENNSYLVANIA
A court authorized this Notice. This is not a solicitation from a lawyer.

If you paid for a Philips Respironics CPAP, BiPAP or

Ventilator that was recalled, you may be eligible for a
cash award from a proposed class action Settlement.
A proposed Settlement has been reached with Philips RS North
America LLC (“Philips RS”), Koninklijke Philips N.V., Philips
North America LLC, Philips Holding USA, Inc., and Philips RS
North America Holding Corporation (collectively, the “Philips
Defendants”) in a U.S. class action lawsuit alleging Economic
Loss Claims related to the purchase, lease, or rental of certain
CPAPs, BiPAPs, and ventilators that Philips Respironics recalled
beginning in June 2021. These devices were sold in the U.S.
between 2008 and 2021.

A court authorized this Notice because individuals and entities

residing in the United States (including its Territories and the
District of Columbia), and military and diplomatic personnel
stationed overseas, who purchased, leased, rented, paid for (in
whole or in part), or were prescribed a Recalled Device (called
“Users”) have the right to know about a proposed legal Settlement
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ventilator, and/or other devices sold, leased, rented or otherwise
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Form Notice or on the Settlement website. The Settlement does not
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monitoring relief.

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Users may be eligible for a $100 Device Return Award, a Device
Payment Award, and/or a Device Replacement Award. The amount of
WKH'HYLFH3D\PHQW$ZDUGVIRU8VHUVGHSHQGVRQWKHVSHFL¿FPRGHO
of the Recalled Device. Users who paid out of pocket for a CPAP,
BiPAP, or ventilator device to replace a Recalled Device may qualify
SI SPORTSBOOK for a Device Replacement Award.

+RZFDQ,JHWD3D\PHQW"

Baddest Beats Users who return their Recalled Device to Philips Respironics
by August 9, 2024 (as part of a Recall Program or by Enrolling in
the Settlement) will be entitled to a $100 Device Return Award
and a Device Payment Award without the need to submit a
ON NOV. 11, games for the SDSU hit two claim form. Visit www.RespironicsCPAP-ELSettlement.com
Washington’s worst beat free throws for instructions on how to obtain a prepaid label to return
your Recalled Device. Returning your Recalled Device
Alphonzo of 2023. to cover. will help you maximize your payments from the proposed
Tuputala • Charleston • Ohio State Settlement. Visit www.RespironicsCPAP-ELSettlement.com for
complete information.
(above) vs. San Diego vs. Michigan
prematurely State (-5.5). In (O/U 145.5). :KDWDUHP\RWKHURSWLRQV"
celebrated the first round The Wolverines If you Do Nothing, you will be legally bound by the terms of the
Settlement, and you will release your claims against the Released
a pick-six, of the NCAA led 77–67, and Parties, including the Philips Defendants. You may Opt-Out of
dropping the tournament, everyone was or Object to the Settlement by February 7, 2024. Please visit
www.RespironicsCPAP-ELSettlement.com for more information on
ball at the Utah the Aztecs content to run how to Opt-Out of or Object to the Settlement.
2-yard line. were up four out the clock—
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The mistake and got the until Michigan’s
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didn’t cost rebound after Kobe Bufkin and the other Class Members: Seeger Weiss; Levin Sedran &
the Huskies Charleston just started Berman; Chimicles Schwartz Kriner & Donaldson-Smith LLP; Lynch
Carpenter, LLP; Fine, Kaplan and Black, R.P.C.; Johnson Becker
the game, missed a late walking with 3//& DQG 'HO 6ROH &DYDQDXJK 6WUR\G //& 7KHVH ¿UPV DUH FDOOHG
which they three. The horn the ball under Class Counsel. You will not be charged for their services.
won 35–28. sounded, and his arm like The Court’s Final Approval Hearing
But it dearly the celebration he was out for The Court will hold a Final Approval Hearing on April 11, 2024
at 10:30 a.m., in Courtroom 5A of the Joseph F. Weis, Jr. U.S.
cost bettors started—until an afternoon
S T E V E FA B E R / C S M / S H U T T E R S T O C K

Courthouse, 700 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, to consider

who had UW, the refs put stroll. The whether the Settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate. If there are
an eight-point 0.7 of a second Buckeyes objections, the Court will consider them. The Court will listen to
Settlement Class Members who have asked to speak at the hearing
favorite, to back on the went down and will also decide how much Class Counsel should receive in
cover. That clock for a and scored a fees and expense reimbursements. After the hearing, the Court
will decide whether to approve the Settlement.
edged out meaningless bucket, taking
these two foul just before the total This notice is only a summary.
men’s hoops the buzzer. to 146. —M.B. For more information, visit
www.RespironicsCPAP-ELSettlement.com or call toll-free
1-855-912-3432.

SCORECARD: ZONE
WORM WARFARE
R ICE USED A SECR ET W E A PON DU R ING THE
FOOTBA LL SE A SON: SIDELIN E GU MM Y TR E ATS
B Y RICH A RD JOHNSON
HEY SAY not all heroes
T wear capes. That’s cer-
tainly the case with Rice
strength and conditioning intern
Daniel Domian. He wears a hat,
sunglasses and a black glove on
one hand that he dips into the
plastic bag full of gummy worms
he keeps in the other. He is the
Owls’ gummy worm guy, and this
football season he kept players
refueled during games as the heat
sapped their energy—one small
confection at a time.
There is a history of sweet treats
in college football. A few years ago,
chocolate milk had its moment as a
recovery drink du jour after work-
outs. Owls strength and condition-
ing coach Hans Straub challenged
nutrition coordinator Morgen Cote
to find something to combat taste
1 2 • S P O R T S I L L U S T R AT E D • S I . C O M
fatigue, as players were turning
down applesauce or fruit snacks
on the sideline. The solution—sour
gummy worms—has, as Straub
says, made Costco very wealthy.
“[The worms are] easy to break
down in the blood system and the
bloodstream and get it to where
it needs to go and elevate blood
sugar levels,” Straub says. “It’s the
same reason why we don’t give it
to our kids before bed. [It makes
them] all hyped up, jazzed up.”
Domian typically gave offensive
linemen three or four worms at a
time, especially after long drives,
in addition to an applesauce or
a pickle juice shot—the common
cure for cramping on the field.
A running back may have got-
ten only two. Even Owls coach
Mike Bloomgren has been known
SWEET SPOT
Thanks to some new swag, Domian
was easy to find as he helped keep
Owls football players energized.
to partake. Other strength coaches
around the country caught on and
reached out to Straub to see how
the system worked. Domian even
went viral after the Owls played
Tulsa in October, as a video of him
dispensing candies found its way
to Barstool Sports and ESPN.
Initially, Domian was ripping
packets individually, dumping
out hundreds of the small bags
into his massive Ziploc. But that
changed when candy brand Trolli
heard about Rice’s strategy and
began sending the school hun-
dreds of pounds of gummies.
And not just for the players: The
first 2,000 students at Rice’s game
against Tulane got worms. For
good measure, Domian received
a special duf fel bag to carr y
the snacks and a hat to wear so
he’d be easily identifiable. Says
Ferrara Candy Company senior
director of media, content and PR
Brian Camen, “He’s an inspiration
and a hero to all of wormkind.”
C O U R T E S Y O F J E F F F I T L O W/ R I C E U N I V E R S I T Y ( 2 )
SCORECARD: FULL FRAME

PHO T OGR A PH B Y
ERICK W. R A SC O
CO V ER PHO T OGR A PH B Y
GRE GOR Y HEISL ER

crew) to shoot Derek Jeter for the

F cover of the ’09 Sportsperson of
the Year Issue in peace. It helped
bustling area of the Bronx— that the weather was dreary and
it was late morning, between rush
morning in November 2009. hour and lunch, the rare time the
That allowed photographer shortstop could hang out by a
Gregory Heisler (along with
Erick W. Rasco, who took this

various members of SI’s video FOLLOW FULL FRAME ON INSTAGRAM @SIFULLFRAME

FACES IN THE CROWD B Y D A N FA L K ENHEIM
NOMINATE NOW
To submit a candidate for
Faces in the Crowd, email
faces@si.com.

VITOR GEROMEL Sport: Soccer Hometown: Wichita, Kans.

Geromel, a senior forward at Maize South High, scored the game-tying and go-ahead goals in a
3–1 defeat of St. Thomas Aquinas in the Class 5A semifinals, and then scored in a 2–1 victory against
Blue Valley Southwest to lead the Mavericks to their second straight state title. The Clemson commit
broke the state’s single-season goals record (56) and also set the Kansas career goals mark (130).

CJ NICKOLAS Sport: Taekwondo Hometown: Oakland

Nickolas, 22, defeated Colombia’s Miguel Ángel Trejos 2–0 to win gold in the men’s 80 kg taekwondo
event at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, in October. Earlier this year, he took silver in his
division at the world championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, becoming the first U.S. man to win a medal at
the event since 2009. As of November, Nickolas was ranked as the world No. 2 in his weight class.

EMILY WISNIEWSKI Sport: Cross-Country Hometown: Corvallis, Ore.

Emily, a junior at Crescent Valley High, won the 5,000-meter event at the Rose City Championship
Invitational in October in a state record time of 16:27.2, shaving 13.7 seconds off the previous mark. Less
than three weeks later, she ran a 17:05.8 5K to win her third consecutive girls 5A state title, eclipsing the
previous meet record by 21 seconds. In June, she placed second in the 5K at the Nike Outdoor Nationals.

CORY ASIMUS describes just part of Asimus’s motivation.

MARATHON
what it feels like to run with a His friend, fellow firefighter
100-pound rucksack on his back Keegan Murphy, had Stage IV

The in one word: oppressive. “There

was no easy part,” says Asimus,
lung cancer, likely linked to toxic
chemical exposure while serving
U S A TA E K W O N D O ( N I C K O L A S ) ; C O U R T E S Y O F E M I LY W I S N I E W S K I ( W I S N I E W S K I ) ;
C O U R T E S Y O F V I T O R G E R O M E L ( G E R O M E L ) ; C O U R T E S Y O F A N T WA U N W I L S O N /

Long
C OUR T E S Y OF F RIEND S OF T HE A PPL E T ON F IRE DEPA R T MEN T (A SIMUS)

a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and as an infantryman overseas. (He is

firefighter in Appleton, Wis. “I’d now in remission.) Asimus worked

Run go out for this two-hour-long run,

which was grueling, and then have
a friction burn on my back and get
in the shower and it’s just stinging.”
In September, Asimus, 34,
became the unofficial world
record holder for the fastest
marathon while carrying that
weight, completing the Fox Cities
Marathon in 4:53:07. He broke the
previous mark by 10:41.
Aiming for the world record was
with local charity Vaspire316
ahead of the race and raised more
than $41,000. These funds will be
used to provide cancer-screening
kits for first responders and
veterans in Outagamie County.
“I reached out to Keegan
and said, ‘Hey, I want to do this
extreme thing. How can I help
you?’ ” says Asimus. “I felt so
much pressure, but it was cool
once it became bigger than me.”

1 6 • S P O R T S I L L U S T R AT E D • S I . C O M
 2 0

2 3

DEION SANDERS

PHOTOGRAPH BY
JEFFERY A. SALTER

ROCK BY
PAT FORDE

IN LESS THA N A YEA R, DEION SA NDERS HA S NOT ONLY

TR A NSFOR MED A MORIBUND COLOR A DO FOOTBA LL
PROGR A M. HE’S A LSO BREATHED FRESH LIFE INTO THE
CA MPUS A ND TR A NSFOR MED A COMMUNITY

HAIR BY DERMONICO TOWNSEND MAKEUP BY BETH WALKER STYLING BY CASEY TRUDEAU

Q Q

The photo shoot was progressing the way they often do,
becoming a war of wills pitting the perfectionists with
the cameras and the lighting and the smoke machine
against the impatient subjects arrayed in front of them.
Between poses, Deion Sanders was getting fidgety.
S O
T Y
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
WINTER 2023
were 4–6 and had lost four straight in a rugged Pac-12,
three of them by one score, two of them at the very end.
“The Oregon game, I’ve forgotten it,” Sanders said
of his team’s lone blowout to that point. “I’ve moved
past it. The others stay with me. Three points, seven
points—details, consistency. We want to win now.”
Then the photo crew called Sanders to his mark, a
square of black tape on the ground where he was to
stand with about 100 students roaring behind him.
Sanders hit the mark, struck the requested pose; it
was glow time. Shades on, diamond-and-gold whistle
gleaming around his neck, the Duke of Drip unveiled
one of humankind’s most luminous smiles.
Coach Prime lit up on command, as few others can,
and his work was done. In a larger sense, his para-
digm-shifting, precedent-shattering work—in Colorado
and in college football—might be just beginning.
THERE ARE NUMBERS that define the Prime Effect
upon the University of Colorado in Boulder, a place
that hasn’t always had a chummy relationship with
football. First-year applications are up 26.4% year over
The coach of Colorado was surrounded by
his people: His agent, the school’s chancellor
and athletic director, and 99-year-old superfan
Peggy Coppom were among the entourage. As
the photo crew pored over details, Sanders lobbed
one-liners at his sons—social media maven
Deion Jr., Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur and
safety Shilo. He wrapped his arm around his
daughter, Colorado basketball player Shelomi,
kissing her on the temple. He bent over to speak
so tiny Peggy could hear him. (Peggy is Deion’s
match in terms of personality. “I thought I was
coming for the Swimsuit edition,” she said.)
But eventually, this shoot at Folsom Field
needed to wrap so Coach Prime could get back
to coaching. “We’re doing one more shot,” he
said, light but firm. “Let’s go.”
One more shot turned into two, with a change
of backdrop. Sanders paced between shutter
GREG NELSON
clicks and strobe f lashes, talking ball with a
visitor, fretting about the tight turnaround for
a Friday road game. At that point the Buffaloes
year; Black or African American applications are up
80.6%; nonresident applications are up 29.8%; and
international applications are up 38.4% from 97 coun-
tries, including 16 that didn’t have any applications
last year. While those numbers cannot be definitively
linked to Sanders, others can be: September sales
at the school’s online team store were up 2,544%
over the same month in 2022. Every home game in
50,183-seat Folsom Field was sold out for the first
time in school history.
“It has that 1990s energy all over again,” says
Mark Heinritz, co-owner of The Sink, a bar within
a 10-minute walk of Folsom Field. “There were a lot
of discussions over a couple decades of, ‘Why do we
have football?’ This is why we have football.”
There are numbers that define the Prime Effect
on Boulder, a quirky, affluent and extremely white
city of 108,000 that is picturesquely situated north-
west of Denver at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.
Visit Boulder, the convention and visitors bureau,
calculates that the total economic impact of the first
four home games—where attendance was up by nearly
a third over last year—was an estimated $77.8 million,
DEION
SANDERS
a massive jump from 2022. “Boulder felt kind of beaten
up, or beaten down, through the pandemic,” says city
council member Rachel Friend. “Our potholes haven’t
been filled as readily, we can’t figure out how to get
unhoused people what they need and we’ve had a
notable increase in that population. There is a cash
infusion [from football into the economy] that means
more potholes are going to be filled. People living here
and visiting here are going to be taken care of better.”
And there are numbers that help define the
Prime Effect on college football: The previously
BUFFALO SKILLS
Sanders overhauled CU’s roster—and its
fortunes: The team that was 1–11 last year
was ranked as high as No. 18 this season.
S O for lunch in mid-November and wound up heaping
hosannas on Coach Prime.
T Y “There is a hum in this town I haven’t seen
in my 23 years here,” said city council member
Matt Benjamin, a Colorado graduate and season-ticket
irrelevant Buffs had the most-watched game of the holder. “It’s just infectious. People who know nothing
season through the first 11 weeks, as 10.03 million about college football are talking about Coach Prime,
talking about the CU Buffs. He’s bringing people in
viewers tuned in for the Sept. 23 loss to Oregon. In fact,
Colorado has had five of the 13 most-watched games; who were peripheral before.”
Alabama had three of the top 13 to that point, while Lance Carl, a former football player at Colorado who
Ohio State, Texas, Penn State and LSU each had two. is now the program’s director of player development
So, yes, the numbers are huge and paint a vivid and alumni relations: “I met a guy after one game
portrait of renewal—but they don’t fully explain why from Dallas who had never been to a game here but
Sanders is our 2023 Sportsperson of the Year. The wanted to see what it was all about with Deion. He
human stories run deeper, and not just the celebrities wasn’t a rapper, wasn’t a celebrity—he was a Black
businessman who just wanted to be here.”
and athletes flocking to the sidelines of games, but also
the grassroots stories as the Prime Effect transcends Annett James, president of the Boulder County
sports and ripples outward through the culture. branch of the NAACP and a 43-year resident: “I think
he’s the best thing that’s happened to Boulder since
In the Colorado chancellor’s office, a delighted smile
spreads across the face of 77-year-old Phil DiStefano I’ve lived here, by far. The stuff I’ve been doing over
as he tells a story from earlier this year. One of the 40 years, Deion comes in and does in six months.”
school’s five Nobel laureates was recruiting a nation- James describes attending a campus function with
ally acclaimed scientist from California to join the a friend one Friday night before a home game, then
faculty. The laureate wanted to set up a campus visit going to the nearby Embassy Suites for a nightcap.
to interview, and the chemist agreed on one condition: “We walked in, and there’s like 30 Black people. My
She wanted to meet Deion Sanders. friend said, ‘Oh my God, I’ve never seen that many
“He met with her for 45 minutes,” DiStefano says. Black people at a bar in Boulder!’ We started talking to
“On her way out he said, ‘Here’s my telephone number, people, and there were some who said they came here
and give me yours. I call all my recruits
after they visit.’ ”
Ultimately, Sanders and Colorado
lost that recruit to MIT, which is like SAYS JA MES OF THE LOCA L NA ACP:
losing a five-star football prospect to
“THE STUFF I’VE BEEN DOING

DEION
Alabama—it happens. But the chair of
the biochemistry department was so OVER 40 YEA RS, COMES
taken by the allure of Sanders and his
willingness to help the school academi- IN A ND DOES IN SIX MONTHS.”
cally that he emailed DiStefano some-
thing not often articulated by Boulder
faculty: “Phil, we love football.”
On another part of campus, profes-
sor Reiland Rabaka is exulting over
Coach Prime. Rabaka is founder and
director of the school’s Center for African and African from Atlanta for Prime. I think the Black people who
American Studies. The center had its grand opening live here also have more of a sense of community—not
on Feb. 1, and Rabaka harbored hopes that Sanders that we didn’t have community before, but we feel
might attend. But then he found out that it was also free to be more above-ground.”
the late National Signing Day, one of the high holy
days on the football calendar.
“I wasn’t expecting the brother,” Rabaka says. “I “AT THE RISK of sounding cocky, I’ve always been
felt like it was an imposition to ask. When he walked Prime,” says Deion Sanders, and that’s a risk he’s
through the door, it was pure pandemonium. It was been willing to take his entire life. He’s bragged—
like Moses parting the Red Sea and coming to me. and backed it up—since childhood. The headline
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

When I embraced him, it was like two brothers from on the first of six previous Sports Illustrated
the projects meeting here—in Boulder. I’ve been out cover stories on Sanders, in November 1989, came
WINTER 2023

here in Boulder for 20 years waiting on this brother.”

At The Sophomore, a newly opened, locally owned
22
sports bar, an eclectic group of civic leaders gathered
 from one of his quotes in the piece: they don’t
pay nobody to be humble.
He was a bombastic young man then, a rising
two-sport professional star who would become a
Pro Football Hall of Famer and Super Bowl champion
and also play in the World Series, hitting .533 with five
stolen bases for the Braves in 1992 against Toronto.
He’s a slightly less bombastic 56-year-old man now,
still pretty much the same guy he’s always been, in
a world that is more willing to embrace him as he
is. Coach Prime didn’t evolve to fit the role of col-
lege football coach nearly as much as college football
evolved to meet up with Coach Prime.
D U S T I N B R A D F O R D / G E T T Y I M A G E S (4) ; N I C K T R E . S M I T H / I C O N
SPOR T SW IRE /GE T T Y IM AGE S (SH A RPE); A NDRE W W E V ERS/
On this November afternoon, Sanders is sitting in
his office overlooking Folsom Field with a view of the
Rockies, which had received a fresh coating of snow
the day before. He’s wearing black overalls and a white
hoodie. His Belgian Malinois dog, Gunner, is over by
the window. (That’s very Boulder, taking the dog to
U S A T O D AY S P O R T S (J O H N S O N )
work.) Behind him is a sign that reads:
IF YOU LOOK GOOD
YOU PLAY GOOD
IF YOU PLAY GOOD
THEY PAY GOOD
23
DEION
SANDERS
There is assuredly no other college football coach
in America with a sign like that greeting visitors,
but it perfectly fits the modern reality of the sport.
The days of pretending this isn’t a business are over.
College football has never been more about the money
than it is now, from conference-realignment decisions
based on TV revenue to massive coaching salaries
and shameless buyouts. Now it has finally trickled
STAR POWER
The Buffs have been visited by (clockwise from
top left) DaBaby, Shannon Sharpe, Michael Irvin,
Dwayne Johnson, Terrell Owens and Paul Pierce.
down to the players, who have been liberated to be
paid good if they play good.
The NCAA’s name, image and likeness rules went
into effect in the summer of 2021, a landscape-altering
development that the establishment had heavily
resisted for decades. NIL and the transfer portal
were prophesied as disasters by the Cassandras in
college football; in reality they haven’t damaged the
popularity of the sport one bit.
In an era when players can profit by promoting
and marketing themselves, Sanders is the expert in
the field. He has always been Prime. This is his time.
S O
T Y
His 2023 makeover of the Colorado roster via the
portal resulted in an unprecedented 87 new players
from the 1–11 dumpster fire he inherited. NIL oppor-
tunities helped him stun the college football world
while he was coaching at Jackson State, grabbing
the No. 1 recruit in the class of ’22, two-way star
Travis Hunter, away from Florida State. Hunter has
continued to profit from NIL—he is believed to be
making seven figures per year. Shedeur followed his
dad from Jackson State; he drives a Rolls-Royce, a
chip off Dad’s flaunt-it block.
The marketing of the Buffaloes began soon after
Sanders arrived in Boulder for his introduction as
coach on Dec. 4, 2022. A production crew from the
Amazon series Coach Prime followed him, just as it
had documented his tenure at Jackson State, where
he went 27–6 in three seasons and won new fans. But
a Power 5 conference coaching job was the goal, and
with it came new levels of competition and exposure—
two of the central themes of Sanders’s life.
Growing up in Fort Myers, Fla., young Deion spent
most of his time immersed in two things: playing
sports and consuming sitcoms. His life’s work flowed
from there. “I’ve always played some type of sport,
always organized some type of team in the neigh-
borhood,” he says. “When we were in elementary
[school], our bus stop would play against another
bus stop. We would get together, walk to their bus
stop, play a game right there on the road, so we were
sweaty and funky going to school. I would organize
a baseball team and go get hats from the 7-Eleven
so we could have a little structure.
“I didn’t have the ‘Prime’ nickname in youth
leagues, but I’ve always been the guy who hit the
home runs. I’ve always been the guy who scored the
touchdowns. I’ve always been the guy who dunked
and scored 30 points. I’ve always been the guy who
brought people together, who broke up fights in high
school. I’ve always been the guy that some people
hated, some people ridiculed, some people doubted.
No one just let me ride. No one gave me a pass. I’ve
always attracted a judgmental crowd. That’s how
God designed me. I’ve always provoked emotions.”
When he wasn’t provoking emotions, he was study-
ing them via TV. The golden era of 1970s comedy was
fertile learning ground for Sanders. “I watched a lot of
television as a kid,” he says. “And I didn’t just watch
television—I watched television. I studied character-
istics. I studied Good Times, I studied The Jeffersons, I
studied Sanford and Son, Happy Days, All in the Family.
I studied the dynamics of all these different shows.
What made them click? Who was the guy? Who was
the costar? I just watched it like it was a game.”
Sanders then went on to play a variety of roles in
real life. Whether it’s acting skills or genuine cha-
risma, he has found a way to be all things to all people.
You can see in him what you want to see.

of it. And the way he it, he was about it. It

approached the game was amazing to watch.
on and off the field is Fast-forward a few
something that sticks years and a few kids
with me to this day. later for us both, and
MY EARLIEST Prime Time is the it’s still amazing for
memories of watching one who taught me: me to watch Prime
sports start with Deion “Look good, feel good. do his thing as a
Sanders. I can still see Feel good, play good. father. As parents,
the way he looked. Play good, they pay we give undivided and
The way he walked. good.” I still lay my unconditional love and
The way his swag just uniform out on the support to our kids. At
LEBRON JAMES
I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y D A N E VA N S

came right through the floor and take a look the same time, we hold
ON TV screen. Everything at it before I put it on. them accountable.
DEION SANDERS about him was super I got that from Deion. We want them to be
cool to me. I was in He always looked good as great as they can
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

James is a
three-time Sportsperson awe of his ability, his on the field—and he be. We want them
of the Year style, his drive, all didn’t just talk about to be unbelievable
WINTER 2023
 DEION SANDERS: CELEBRITY.
In a world where many people are famous for no
reason, he’s famous for abundant legitimate reasons.
His combination of unparalleled athletic accomplish-
ment with eye-catching style and a gift for oratory
makes him an attention magnet. And did we mention
the smile?
The number of very famous Americans who have
come to Boulder just to be in Sanders’s orbit exem-
plifies his gravitational pull. From The Rock to an
array of Hall of Fame athletes to hip-hop icons, the
sidelines at Colorado home games resembled VIP
seating for a Tyson-era Vegas bout. The only other
time a college football program attracted this watt-
age of star power was USC during the Pete Carroll
heyday—maybe.
Sanders has gained immense popularity and fame
without an overindulgence in fakery. He does not say
what people want to hear just to go along and get
along. During the photo shoot for this story, one of
the students in attendance yelled to Sanders, “Thanks
for the follow yesterday [on social media].” Sanders’s
response: “That wasn’t me, my man. My son does all
that for me.” The kid didn’t seem to mind.
DEION SANDERS: AUTHENTIC MAN.
He’s not trying to blend into the overwhelmingly white
demographic of his profession. That would be faking
it. There is no small percentage of America that would
prefer he just fake it and stop being so . . . Black.
“Our country’s not prepared for an African American
DEION
SANDERS
man with this title, telling the truth,” Sanders says.
“I don’t think we’re there yet.”
Rabaka, the African American studies professor,
posits that Sanders is “arguably a hip-hop head coach.
He’s got the hat cocked to the side. He’s got the gold
chains. He’s wearing the nicest Nikes and sweatsuits.”
That’s easier to pull off at Jackson State than at a
high-major program, where the established aesthetic
is homogeneous—and pale. Even fellow Black coach
Jay Norvell of Colorado State took a shot at Sanders
for his wardrobe: “When I talk to grown-ups, I take
my hat off and my glasses off. That’s what my mother
taught me.”
Sanders is undeterred and has Colorado’s back-
ing to be who he is. (What a concept in 2023.) The
school loves Sanders’s persona. Boulder, white as it
is but also decidedly liberal, welcomes the diversity.
That has resonated nationally: The Buffaloes have
been widely hailed as “Black America’s team,” as
Georgetown once was in college basketball.
“He’s unapologetically African American,” says
Rabaka. “He speaks plainly, says it just like the
brothers on the block, like the way we talk at the
barbershop. We come from a culture of being expres-
sive, we use call-and-response dialogue. Listen to
him, and you hear that.”

in the sport they’re day he stepped foot Everything else at this

playing or whatever it on campus at FSU. point is extra credit.
is they’re doing. But There’s nothing he Give him a little time
more importantly, hasn’t seen. It’s been leading the program in
we want them to be great to see how he Colorado, and he’ll get
unbelievable young handles it all, and now it locked in. He is one
men and women. And we get to watch him of those guys—he’s
that starts at home. give the blueprint to his one of one.
You give respect, kids so they can build a Prime is doing what
you get respect. legacy of their own. he’s called to do,
That’s something Deion’s legacy in and that’s on and off
Coach Prime and I football is cemented. the field.
continue to relate on.
And doing it all under
those bright lights is FIT FOR A KING
nothing new to him. Before James began to appreciate how Sanders
LEE CRUM

Prime Time’s been in is raising his family, he was drawn to the sense
the spotlight since the of style Prime displayed on the SI cover in 1989.
S O

T Y

DEION SANDERS: GOD-FEARING MAN.

If hip-hop culture isn’t your thing, Sanders can
pull you in with his public espousing of religion.
He is a God Squadder who refrains from swearing,
peppering his sentences with durn and bull junk as
replacements for cuss words—just as his legendary
college coach, Bobby Bowden, did.
There is no greater example of Sanders’s cross-
demographic reach than his friendships with
Lil Wayne and Peggy Coppom, the lifelong fan
who has become the Sister Jean of Colorado football.
Coppom goes to church daily and respects Sanders’s
religious nature. “I really like the fact that he’s not
reluctant to express his faith in God,” she says.
If there was anything Sanders did this year that
could be characterized as Christianity in action, it
was his peacemaker role after Colorado State safety
Henry Blackburn delivered a cheap shot that led to
Hunter missing 3 ½ games with an internal injury.
With Colorado fans heaping abuse on Blackburn
and his family, Sanders defused the situation.
“This is still a young man trying to make it in
life—a guy that’s trying to live his dream and hope-
fully graduate with honors or a degree, committed
to excellence and go to the NFL,” Sanders said.
“He does not deserve a death threat over a game.”

DEION SANDERS:
OLD-SCHOOL COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACH.
The perceived Hollywood culture of the program
runs into a reality that insiders unanimously
describe as heavy on structure. “He might have
more rules than a lot of other programs,” says
Chad Chatlos of TurnkeyZRG Executive Search,
which handles high-profile coach and athletic direc-
tor searches. “People miss on how much discipline
and accountability he brings to a program.”
In the transfer-portal era, coaches are petrified
of criticizing their players. Yet Sanders certainly
didn’t coddle the most touted freshman on his team,
defensive back Cormani McClain. When McClain
wasn’t playing much early in the season, Sanders
pretty much put him on blast: “Study, prepare. Be
on time for meetings, show up to the durn meetings.
Want to play this game, desire to play this game,
( R A B A K A ) ; I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y D A N E VA N S

desire to be the best in this game in practice, in the

J A M I E S C H WA B E R O W ( FA N S ) ; C A S E Y
A . CASS/UNIVERSIT Y OF COLOR ADO

film room and on your own free time.”

CONSTANCE
SCHWARTZ-MORINI
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

DEION SANDERS: FAMILY MAN.

ON
Like many parents in their 50s, this is the role he
WINTER 2023

cherishes most. Interaction with his kids is waning DEION SANDERS

as the youngest move through college, but Sanders Schwartz-Morini is the CEO
26
managed to forestall that bittersweet inevitability of SMAC Entertainment
 DEION

SANDERS

particular moment: and his values and is

That’s Sanders. I so deliberate about
always understood the partnerships he
his potential. In 2020, chooses. Yes, he’s
after years of coaching savvy, and he does
at the youth level, his research, and
Deion came to me with he knows how to
the idea of helping assemble a great
recruitment efforts team around him. But
at his alma mater, I think the core of his
Florida State. “Why business success is
help someone else just how much that
recruit?” I asked him. authenticity and
“You should be a head confidence resonates
coach on your own.” with people. That is
I know it’s not the such an important
norm to go straight lesson that he shares
from coaching high with his players as they
schoolers to running have opportunities to
the show in Division I. build their own brands
But he isn’t the norm. and plan for the next
He is such a singular phase of their lives.
presence that I was He’s bringing
confident he’d thrive. structure and
When Deion started discipline to the
at Jackson State, program at Colorado,
he went into the which is crucial, but
community and met he’s doing it with
with everyone: local love and support.
preachers, business That combination is
owners and leaders so rare nowadays.
from all sides of the People recognize
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HI street. Deion was that: I’ll never forget
Rabaka quickly learned the power of a face-to- so intentional about checking my phone
face meeting with Sanders, who has enthralled building the program after Colorado’s
recruits and, from afar, thousands of fans. up as a collective double-overtime win
effort. He knew over Colorado State
that meant forging in September. I had
IT’S BEEN almost superstar, but he was people who emulate personal relationships so many messages
30 years since I met so low-key and down similar qualities. in the community, and from people on the
“my Sanders,” but to earth. He connected That’s the only way I he put in the time, the East Coast who
the memory still with everyone. That’s know how to work, and effort and the heart to had stayed up past
feels striking. It was still who he is today. it’s the only way he make that work. midnight to watch
Super Bowl XXVIII in It’s what brought us does, too. Whether they love the end of the game.
Atlanta, I was working together to begin our It’s a huge part of him or hate him, people They felt like it was
in special events at the working relationship what has made him respect and connect a movement and
NFL and he was in the more than a decade such a successful with his authenticity. they wanted to be
middle of his playing after that brief coach for this era. Deion is Deion, 100% of part of it. But that’s
career. Deion had been meeting. Deion Recruiting, building the time. You can see Deion. He knows
asked to make an respects authenticity, relationships, teaching that in the business how to bring people
appearance at the NFL honesty and loyalty, life lessons and opportunities he together. No matter
Experience Kids Day. and he forges knowing how to tap seeks: He’s always what the record, he’s
This was Prime Time, a relationships with into the heart of a staying true to himself already won.
S O
T Y
RISING SON
Coach Prime’s
star pupil is
Shedeur, who
through 11 games
completed 69.3%.
of his passes, with
27 TDs and three
interceptions.
by going to college with them—first at Jackson State,
now at Colorado. Then he brought most of the rest of
the family with him to Boulder.
Sanders’s description of the dynamic at Colorado’s
Dal Ward Athletic Center sounds like something out
of a sitcom. “How in the world is this not heaven on
Earth?” Sanders says in his office. “Every day, my
daughter comes through that door and gives me a
kiss. Every day, Shedeur comes in here and takes a
shower, changes clothes, then they wash my clothes
like they do and I find his underwear in my drawer—I
know they’re not mine, because I know what brand I
wear. Shilo sneaks up here to take a dump. Junior’s
office is right next to mine. My sister [his assistant,
Tracie Knight] is outside. My mother is over there
watching the soap operas. My dog is right here. How
in the world can I not be thankful and appreciative
of where I am? They have afforded us the luxury of
calling this place home, and we’ve absolutely loved it.”
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
As it turns out, Sanders’s agency, SMAC, and
Kevin Hart’s production company are working on
WINTER 2023
a sitcom based on Coach Prime’s life. It’s all coming
full circle for the boy who grew up studying ’70s TV
shows. He’s about to become the inspiration for one.
AS FOR THE actual football? It’s been an adventure.
Colorado is massively improved over 2022, when it
was by far the worst Power 5 program. The Buffaloes
were outscored by 29.1 points per game last year,
compared to 6.7 this year. Las Vegas set their over-
under total at 3.5 wins coming into the season, and
the Buffs surpassed that in early October.
But there have been pratfalls. For all the acclaim
Sanders has received, he’s also gotten criticism for
blowing a 29-point lead to a bad Stanford team, for
mismanaging the clock in a couple of games, for
strangely demoting offensive coordinator Sean Lewis.
It hasn’t all been sunshine and reflector shades.
“If you have 10 boxes to check, I’d say eight of them
are checked,” Chatlos says. “This was a program
lacking relevance, and he’s Mr. Relevant—he’s given
them that. I’d say B-plus so far. The question is, how
good of a football program is he building?”
That remains to be answered. What Colorado
does in the portal this offseason will be a huge
part of the equation, as will Shedeur’s decision on
whether to enter the NFL draft. For Sanders, he has
to decide whether the current joy he’s experiencing
will last after his sons hang up their helmets. For
Colorado, they want those luminous smiles to radi-
ate in Boulder for a long time.
“I trust him,” says athletic director Rick George.
“He feels this is his calling.”
The call has been answered. The response has been
E R I C K W. R A S C O ( 2 )
emphatic. The paradigm has been shifted. College
football has never seen anything like the Prime Effect
when it hit Boulder in the fall, and the sport might
never be the same again.
28
IF YOU DON’T
BELIEVE
IN YOURSELF,
HOW WILL
SOMEBODY ELSE
BELIEVE IN YOU?”
Congratulations on being named Sports Illustrated
Sportsperson of the Year, Coach Prime. Thanks for
making Boulder BELIEVE. This is just the beginning.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC.

S O
off the line to get After that Super Bowl
some separation from year in San Francisco,
T Y him. I knew it would Deion moved to the
be tough. But it also Cowboys, and we went
motivated me. I hope it back to being rivals.
motivated him, too. As After we were done
a competitor, you want playing, the respect
to go against the best to we had for each other
test yourself. on the field and the
JERRY RICE In 1994, Deion moved passion we shared for
ON from Atlanta to the competing developed
DEION SANDERS 49ers: After all those into friendship. I played
Rice entered the years on opposite sides, my college football
Pro Football Hall we were teammates. at Mississippi Valley
of Fame in 2010 In San Francisco we State University, so it
had been to the NFC was inspiring to see
championship game the job Deion did at
two years in a row— Jackson State. I wanted
Deion was the missing to represent HBCUs
piece we needed to get the right way; that
year for five seasons as back to championship was so important for
rivals in the NFC West. I level. As I knew from me. I know it was for
couldn’t sleep the night facing him, he was him, too.
before when I knew he’d that shut-down corner. I’m not surprised
be covering me. If Deion Now it was time to Deion has found
THERE WAS a was on the opposite work together. We had success as a coach.
time when I hated side, you knew it was different approaches That’s just who he is.
Deion Sanders. To be going down the next day. to the game, but we A motivator. A leader.
clear: It wasn’t Deion Deion was one of the both had the same A teacher. That’s what
the man. It was Deion fastest defensive backs goal: to win a Super it takes to be a great
the competitor. Deion I ever faced. Before Bowl. And we did that. coach. I just feel bad for
the opponent. After he every play I had to come You find a way to work the teams he’s coaching
came into the NFL with to the line with a plan. together because it’s against. I know how
the Falcons we went I’d have to double-move, about teamwork. That they feel the night
at each other twice a maybe triple-move, is what we did. before the game.

F R O M L E F T: F O C U S O N S P O R T/ G E T T Y I M A G E S ; N E W S B A S E /A P ; I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y D A N E VA N S
FRIEND AND FOE
Sanders and Rice brought out
the best in each other over
their Hall of Fame careers.
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

WINTER 2023

30
FIFI DOES IN AN AGE in which
two-way players like
in San Diego. (Her club
coach, Rob Rennie,

IT ALL Shohei Ohtani have

redefined what an
compares her favorably
to former Blues player
THE 2023 SPORTSKID athlete can do in one Olivia Moultrie, the
OF THE YEAR ISN’T sport, Fifi Garcia has youngest regular-
CONTENT TO DOMINATE pushed the boundaries season goalscorer in
IN JUST ONE SPORT of how good a kid can NWSL history.) Fifi also
be at multiple games. topped two national
The 2023 SportsKid of futsal competitions.
the Year led her SoCal She won the gold in the
BY SAM PAGE Blues soccer team 400 meters at the AAU
PHOTOGRAPHS BY to a title in their age West Coast Nationals.
KOHJIRO KINNO group at the Surf Cup Her softball team, the
 2 O

2 3

Corona Angels, reached to paint nature scenes.

the semis of the Alliance The 11-year-old has a
Fastpitch National goal to become a two-
Championships. sport star, like a certain
And that was just 2023 Sportsperson of
summer vacation 2023. the Year. Her dream is to
Back in school at play soccer and softball
Saints Simon & Jude at UCLA. “Soccer is my
in Huntington Beach, favorite right now,” says

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
Calif.—where she is a Fifi. “I have the most
straight-A student—Fifi fun with it. It’s a nonstop

WINTER 2023
also plays volleyball and game.” Fitting, coming
basketball. Plus, she’s a from a kid who is on the
talented artist who loves move nonstop.
Just like Jon on the golf course, Blue Yonder is having
its defining moment here and now, reinventing supply
chain management with an industry-leading, end-to-
end suite of cognitive applications to empower your
business with a more sustainable, more efficient, and
more resilient supply chain.

This is our moment to create a world

that works better for everyone.
Discover the future at blueyonder.com

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC

 L E F T T O R I G H T, F R O M T O P : K I R B Y L E E / U S A T O D AY S P O R T S ; M I K E E H R M A N N / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; K AT I E G O O D A L E / U S A T O D AY S P O R T S ; R O N A L D M A R T I N E Z /
G E T T Y I M A G E S ; E R I C K W. R A S C O ; A L A I N G R O S C L A U D E /A G E N C E Z O O M / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; E R I C K W. R A S C O ; J E F F E R Y A . S A LT E R ; J A S E N V I N L O V E /
M I A M I M A R L I N S / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; E R I C K W. R A S C O ( 2 ) ; B R I A N B A B I N E A U / N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; E R I C K W. R A S C O ; C O O P E R N E I L L / G E T T Y I M A G E S ;
J U S T I N TA F O YA / N C A A P H O T O S / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; J E F F R E Y T. B A R N E S /A P ; K O H J I R O K I N N O ; J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H ; M A R K T H O M P S O N / G E T T Y I M A G E S ;
NAOMI BAK ER/GE T T Y IMAGES; GREG NELSON; C. MORGAN ENGEL /NCA A PHOTOS/GE T T Y IMAGES; GREG NELSON

TIME CAPSULE
2
2

trends that made this year a memorable one—and may shape the memories to be made in ’24.
for

viewing events. And yet, every year feels unprecedented. New stars are born. Living legends make history. And
3
3

changes little from one year to the next, a familiar rhythm of opening days, trophy ceremonies and appointment-
CYCLICITY IS one of the beauties of sports. As fans we plan our days, weeks and months around a calendar that

indelibly dramatic moments—sometimes with life and death literally in the balance—happen when we least expect
them. In the years to come, what will we think about when we think about 2023? Here are the 23 people, moments and
35
 2 3
for
2 3

TRAVIS KELCE

END
GAME
BY
CONOR ORR

QB GENES, POINT
GUARD SKILLS
AND A POP STAR
GIRLFRIEND: THE MAN
REVOLUTIONIZING
HIS POSITION BEARS
LITTLE RESEMBLANCE
TO TIGHT ENDS OF
THE PAST
S T E P H E N M AT U R E N G E T T Y I M A G E S

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
WINTER 2023

37
 a few months ago who Travis Kelce was, she’d ask,
‘Is that a store?’ ”
Lemoncelli, who points out that People is cover-
ing even the most routine of Kelce’s on-field recep-
tions, says the Chief could “sneeze a certain way”
and it would be “our number-one story, all day and
all night.”
But as the Year of Kelce comes to an end, it’s
important to note that we would not be where we
are without his absolute and total football brilliance.
Kelce has changed what is possible for tight ends off
the field because he has transformed the position
on it. Now in his 11th season, twice a Super Bowl
champion, four times a first-team All-Pro, eight
times a Pro Bowler, Kelce has cemented himself
as one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history.
Choose your preferred forum for a proper sports
debate. Mount Rushmore? Top five? Dream Team?
Kelce is there, not just merely in the conversation
but dominating it.
Sometimes greatness is as simple as someone
being bigger and stronger and faster, a lapse in some
universal gene disbursement program that ended
up handing all the good stuff to a singular human.

How did the tight end position arrive here? With

Travis Kelce walking down a hallway wearing selections
from his massive wardrobe full of opulent Marni tops and
Thom Browne pants, hands clasped with the world’s biggest
pop star, Taylor Swift. Together, they shine like quasars,
dominating the tabloids and melting the hearts of Swifties
and (at least some) football fans alike.

This used to be the position of Mike Ditka, of

2 3
for
2 3
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
puggle-faced men with flat-top haircuts straighter
than concrete countertops. Of Dan Campbell, who
sounds like an industrial machine when he talks
and looks like he deadlifts Cadillacs.
Kelce is different. Like the great quarterback pitch-
men of our time, he is omnipresent. He has become
un-ignorable. He is hawking insurance, hot soup and
pharmaceuticals. He cohosts the top sports podcast
in the country with his older brother, Eagles center
Jason. Donna Kelce has become the most recogniz-
able mom in America. He is part John Cena, part
John Candy, part John Wayne.
Kelce has been a star in the football universe for
years. Now?

“My mother called me the other day and said,

‘Did you see that Travis is going to Argentina to see
WINTER 2023

Taylor Swift?’ ” says Jenna Lemoncelli, a crossover

sports and entertainment reporter for the gossip
38
powerhouse New York Post. “If you had asked her
THE BEST DAY TR AVIS
After hauling in six catches for 81 yards
KELCE
and a TD in Kansas City’s last-second
victory in Super Bowl LVII, Travis shared
a moment with his brother and soup
commercial costar, Jason, on the field. In Kelce’s case, those who study the position deeply
argue it is more Darwinian. About two decades ago,
the tight end position began to shift.
Kelce was part of a small group of nomads who
helped figure that out and change the layout of a
football field forever. In this way, Kelce and Swift
pleasantly ducking the aim of celebrity photogra-
phers and pecking each other on the cheek is not
just kindling for gawking eyes—some seemingly
manufactured combination of entertainment mono-
liths exploiting their mutual interests—but also
the finished stages of the tight end’s growth from
Australopithecus to Homo sapiens.
Recruiters say it has never been easier to persuade
kids to switch to tight end after having it be con-
sidered a bit of a career death sentence of blocking
misery, while it seems defensive coordinators have
never had a more difficult time handling what Kelce
has helped the NFL morph into.
When one thinks of it that way, Kelce’s oeuvre
is befitting of the star treatment. Our path here is
worth revisiting.
“Kelce is an enigma. He’s a unicorn,” says
Dallas Clark, one of the top tight ends of the 2000s
and a deep thinker on the state of the position. “He’s
one of those special ones.”
Clark says that, just as modern children will never
be able to understand life before cellphones, youth
F R O M L E F T: N I C K WA G N E R / T H E K A N S A S C I T Y S TA R / T R I B U N E N E W S S E R V I C E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; C O O P E R N E I L L / G E T T Y I M A G E S

football players today will never be able to under-

stand the game before Kelce. It’s never going back.

DUE TO THE notoriously scrambled nature of high

school football—fast, spread-out offenses focused pri-
marily on speed and survival—a good tight end is not
necessarily born and raised but uncovered later in life.
The proliferation of spread offenses—a more
pass-heavy version of football that relies principally
on speed and spacing and less on brute force—in
the late 1990s sliced the prospective recruiting
pool of tight ends in half. Traditional pro-style
tight ends of the time, kids who could top out at
270 pounds and frequently be counted on to block,
were more desirable as offensive linemen given
that teams demanded more athleticism from their
every-down blockers.
Around the same time, the hoarding of wide
receiver talent became a means of survival for major
college programs. The position was over-recruited.
Schools that might devote eight scholarships to
wide receivers were now keeping a dozen, creating
a market premium but also reducing the number of
39
scholarships awarded to tight ends and fullbacks.
2 3 LOVE STORY
for Kelce has found himself in a whole new
2 3
spotlight—one rarely experienced by tight
ends—since he started dating Swift.

So suddenly there was a glut

of 6' 4" kids who didn’t want to
(or couldn’t) play tackle, or were
perhaps a little too slow to be a
wide receiver (such as current
49ers star George Kittle), or, in
Kelce’s case, quarterbacks who
were not going to project as such
at the next level. They could all
be scooped up by programs look-
ing to even the playing field.
“What you’re looking for is
not a finished product,” says
Brandon Blaney, a longtime tight
ends coach who currently works
at Eastern Michigan. “They are
late bloomers, young in their
appearance, kids playing mul-
tiple sports.”
Blaney was on the Kansas
staff in the mid-2000s that
recruited Kelce as a pure tight
end. Kelce was a quarterback at SAYS CLA R K, HIMSELF A FOR MER
Cleveland Heights (Ohio) High,
where he was also a standout A LL-PRO TIGHT END: “K ELCE IS
basketball player who once har-
bored dreams of being a two-
sport athlete for Cincinnati. He
A N ENIGMA.
HE’S A UNICORN.
HE’S ONE OF THOSE SPECIA L ONES.”
passed on the Jayhawks and
played sparingly as a wildcat
quarterback for the Bearcats
before getting kicked off the
team for failing a marijuana
test. Among the requirements
for his reentry into the program: a position change. Kelce’s coaches with the Chiefs provided two exam-
To those who had coveted Kelce as a pass catcher ples of his unique combination of power, finesse and
since high school, the move was obvious. Recruiters game understanding, both of which did not involve
often say that watching kids play other sports, like Kelce even touching the football. Plays like these,
basketball, is a far better projection tool for a tight they say, often get obscured by his highlight catches.
end than seeing them play football. How do their feet
move? Can they dunk? Are they explosive? Do they FIRST-AND-10 AGAINST THE TEXANS IN AN AFC
initiate and welcome contact? Kelce’s high school DI V ISION A L ROUND GA ME IN JA NUA RY 2020 ,
GOTHAM/GC IMAGES/GE T T Y IMAGES

basketball coach had to impose a dribble limit because with the Chiefs trailing 24–0 early in the second
his biggest and most dominant player was capable quarter. At the snap, Kelce is lined up on the left,
of running the point. tight to the line of scrimmage. There are a line-
“I mean, look at the kid’s head. He had a big head, backer and a safety directly over the top of him,
too,” Blaney said, referring to the actual size of the former, presumably, to cover Kelce, and the
Kelce’s cranium. “That tells you he’s going to start latter to pick up running back Damien Williams
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

to really fill out.” should he come out of the backfield and run a
When the projection is successful, the product is passing route.
WINTER 2023

an athlete who can perform the tasks necessary to

play tight end while maintaining the DNA of their
40
experiences before life as a tight end.
 Before the snap, Kelce hears the defensive call and MIK AELA SHIFFRIN
deciphers exactly how the Texans plan to play him.
He also knows that Williams is going to run a route
in a space near where Kelce is going. So, without THE PEOPLE’S
prior instruction, Kelce smashes his route into the
linebacker, Jacob Martin, knocking him off his foot-
CHAMPION
ing with a hard right shoulder. Then Kelce continues
on, burying himself into the safety, Justin Reid.
Now the player meant to guard Kelce is engaged
w ith the tight end in a k ind of street-brawl-
style lapel grab, while the player meant to cover MIK AELA SHIFFRIN but straddled a gate
Williams is still recovering from the shoulder bump. claimed skiing’s all-time in her second, gifting
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes sees the selflessness World Cup wins record the win to Shiffrin.
from Kelce in real time and quickly dumps the ball for herself this year, but, Shiffrin called it “a little
to Williams, who runs untouched into the end zone, being Mikaela Shiffrin, bittersweet. . . . In my

BY
MICHAEL ROSENBERG
beginning one of the largest comebacks in NFL she is probably looking mind, she earned this
postseason history. into ways she can victory, and I’m quite
“That was all on him being perceptive and having share it. Shiffrin is the lucky to have it.”
the wherewithal to understand what he can do for most accomplished Cold-blooded, she is
his team,” says Tom Melvin, the Chiefs’ tight ends of skiers and rarest not. That is what makes
coach since Kelce was drafted. “There are times of superstars: As Shiffrin’s achievements
when we’re like, ‘O.K., what were you doing there?’ incomparable as she so extraordinary.
And then he’ll give an explanation, and I’m like, is on the slopes, she Outrageous
‘Yep, that’s some pretty deep thinking right there.’ ” seems to go out of her expectations make her
way to show she is like uneasy, and doubt is
FIRST-AND-10 AGAINST THE DOLPHINS IN the rest of us. her most permanent
GERMANY IN NOVEMBER. With the ball at the When her father companion. Yet she still
Miami 36-yard line, Kelce is to the far right of the died, she grieved finds a way to dominate.
formation, just outside the shoulder of second-string publicly and admitted it In January, Shiffrin
tight end Noah Gray. The Dolphins are playing affected her ability to surpassed Lindsey Vonn
zone. Kelce runs an out-breaking route toward the perform. At the 2022 for most World Cup
sideline and suctions himself to Xavien Howard Olympics in Beijing, she wins by a woman. In
so that the Miami cornerback cannot backpedal followed one disastrous March, Shiffrin passed
without surrendering an easy completion. Gray run after another Ingemar Stenmark for
ran a similar route to Kelce, just 10 yards deeper. with a media therapy most wins by a human.
With Howard occupied by Kelce, Gray is able to session. In November, As of this writing,
stroll freely into a large swath of space without a at Levi in Finland, Shiffrin has won
nearby defender for an easy 25-yard catch. It was a rival Petra Vlhová 89 World Cup races.
nearly identical concept to a play the Chiefs ran in built a seemingly That is more than
a victory over the Jets earlier this year that resulted insurmountable lead the skiers ranked
in Gray’s first career touchdown against one of the with her first run in a Nos. 5 and 6 on the
best secondaries in the NFL. World Cup slalom event all-time women’s list
On the play, Kelce is obviously not combined to win.
Mahomes’s top choice; he is a decoy. In this Shiffrin is only 28.
role, Kelce displays a willingness and pro- Vonn claimed her last
pensity to still run his route at full speed, victory at age 33.
knowing that the harder he sells the route, Predicting the future
the tighter the coverage he will guaran- with confidence is a
TOM PENNINGTON/GE T T Y IMAGES

tee and the less likely his defender will fool’s hobby, especially
be to drop backward and interfere with in a sport in which
an easy catch for Gray. one crash could end
“That was a pretty big play for us,” says a career. So let’s just
Chiefs coach Andy Reid. “It’s that type of appreciate that, every
thing. And we get one or two of those in time she wins, Shiffrin
every game.” is going where no skier
has ever gone before—
and she is taking us
with her.
 TR AVIS

KELCE

In these moments Kelce’s field vision, born of his

time as a quarterback and a forbidden point guard,
becomes apparent. Then there are the plays that
showcase his elite size and a blocking ability that
could have easily found its way to an offensive line
room. (The difference between a tight end and a
tackle, really, says Clark, is a few cheeseburgers.)
Kelce once ran a whip route—a play where the
receiver fakes an in-cutting route before looping
back outside—so convincingly that he forced Browns
cornerback Denzel Ward to fall to the ground like a
mailbox hit by a baseball bat. When those same cor-
nerbacks or safeties come to the line to guard Kelce
and Mahomes audibles to a run play, the smaller guys
are susceptible to a humiliating type of backward
levitation, as Kelce picks them up and drives them
deep into the defensive backfield.
“He has aided more touchdowns for his teammates
than he has caught for himself,” Melvin says. “And
not just touchdowns. As a primary receiver, he’ll
put his body and coverage element in the way of the
coverage element for one of his teammates if he sees
that it’s a bigger advantage.”

WHERE IS THE tight end going?

That’s what Reid and Melvin would like to know.
They still think there is more to Kelce than this. Every
42
day, he comes into the facility full throttle, giving off

LIONEL MESSI

IMPORT OF Argentina in Qatar,

IMPORT Messi shocked the

THE MAIN soccer even David Beckham’s from Saudi Arabia.

headline of 2023
may sound familiar:
One of the biggest
superstars in soccer
(and sports) stuns the
BY
world by moving to the
ANDRE W
GASTELUM United States. But not
’07 transfer to the The details of
LA Galaxy could match Messi’s MLS deal
the fever pitch of aren’t precise,
Lionel Messi’s signing but he reportedly
with Inter Miami, the
MLS club co-owned by
Beckham (who is also
pro wrestler vibes. He still breaks the tension in a
tight end room—which, by the way, Melvin says is
more densely populated with former quarterbacks
than natural tight ends—and still can strategically
pull out his toddler face to get out of trouble.
“He’s still the knucklehead 23-year-old we drafted,”
Melvin says.
Reid remembers the first time he saw Kelce catch
a football. It was Nov. 10, 2012, at Lincoln Financial
Field. The Bearcats were rolling over Temple, where
one of Reid’s sons was a player and another was a
graduate assistant. Reid was then the head coach of
the Eagles. It was an easy scouting trip to his office.
The boys, ever conscious of a potential weapon
for their dad, kept telling him about this mam-
moth tight end they wanted him to keep an eye on.
“I said, ‘I think I know who this is,’ ” Reid says,
laughing. Jason, whom Reid had already drafted in
Philadelphia, wouldn’t stop bothering Reid about
the prospect of drafting his brother.
It seems prophetic now that Kelce, who always had
2 3
for
2 3
Kelce was being double-teamed that particular day,
and how he could best use his body to take defenders
off the playing field. There are times when Kelce will
return to the sideline, muscle his coaches in tight
and say, “Just so you know, the backside corner keeps
blowing his coverage.”
“If you keep pushing forward with new things,
there’s always a chance to improve,” says Reid, hint-
ing that as Kelce, now 34, continues to age gracefully
on the field, his evolution will become more mental
than physical.
Declaring someone the best tight end of all time
is a fraught argument to wade into unprepared.
Kelce may be the position’s Deion Sanders, a kind
of salesman for future generations, a brand ambas-
sador, but those who have played the position are
protective of its past. There are John Mackey purists.
Don’t for a moment disrespect Tony Gonzalez, who
missed just two games in his career. There are those
who love Kittle, who looks more likely to appeal to
Black Sabbath fans than Swifties.
But then there is this. Melvin, who has been around
the position for decades, making it his life’s work,
knows that there is more. He knows that the taste of
an unfathomably sweet life has not changed Kelce
yet, which means more room to keep changing foot-
ball. “He’s still not the best version of Travis Kelce
that there is,” Melvin says. “There’s still room for
him to get better.”

as $9,000 a pop). In he recorded 11 goals

just two months, his (including a stellar free
pink Inter Miami shirt kick in the 94th minute
became the top-selling of his debut) and eight
MLS jersey of the entire assists while captaining
year. The Argentine’s Inter Miami to the
arrival is expected inaugural Leagues Cup
to double his club’s trophy, which gave him
$600 million valuation. 44 trophies for club and
On the pitch, Messi country, the most of any
lived up to the hype. He player in history.
joined the team, which Messi arrived too late
was floundering, in July to pull Inter anywhere
and scored in each of near a playoff berth.
his first seven matches But given Messi’s 2023
in all competitions. form, don’t bet against
In 14 appearances it in ’24.
4"

The image, frankly, was a little jarring. Kevin Durant, the
Durantula, the 6' 10" forward with the 7' 5" wingspan, the
former MVP who turbocharged the evolution of the big man
when he entered the NBA in 2007, standing at the free throw
lane in the shadow of Victor Wembanyama, the next iteration
of it. An “avatar version” of Durant, said Raptors coach
Darko Rajaković, who watched the game on TV.
In his teens—early teens, actually—Wembanyama
2 3
for
studied Durant, marveling at his skill set. “I like the
2 3 fact that for years and years nobody found a way to
guard him consistently,” said Wembanyama.
After Wembanyama scored 38 points in a November
game against Phoenix, Durant could only marvel.
“He’s different,” the Suns forward said, adding that
Wemby, officially listed at 7' 4" with a wingspan
stretching eight feet, “is going to create his own lane
that’s much different than anybody who’s ever played.”
Not since LeBron James has a top draft pick entered
the NBA with such lofty expectations, and, like James,
Wembanyama is living up to them. He racked up a
21-point, 12-rebound double double in his second
NBA game. He cracked 30 in his fifth. He collected
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
103 points, 40 rebounds and 11 blocks in his first
five games, the first rookie since Shaquille O’Neal to
WINTER 2023
accomplish that. He became the third teenager to post
a 38-point, 10-rebound, two-block stat line, joining
James and Durant. After Wembanyama’s 29-point,
ARMS AND THE KID
Wembanyama, who has a surprisingly deft touch
for a big man, uses his length to defend effectively
on the perimeter as well as at the rim.
nine-rebound effort against Minnesota, T-Wolves
center Rudy Gobert, a countryman and longtime
mentor to Wembanyama, declared himself a “proud
dad.” Said Gobert, “He is going to be a real problem.”
Over the past two decades, the role of the big man
has been largely redefined. Gone is the preference for
the physical rim protectors, the Ewings, the Robinsons,
the O’Neals. Instead, there’s been an influx of fluid,
three-point shooters. Kristaps Porziņg‘is, Brook Lopez
and Nikola Vučević are all marksmen. The NBA’s
best passer—not passing big man, passer—might be
Nikola Jokić, the Nuggets’ center and two-time MVP.
Wembanyama, 19, is the latest version, like if a
modern big man got a system update. He’s as com-
fortable nutmegging an opponent in transition (sorry,
Reggie Bullock) as he is overwhelming them in the
paint. He can fluidly pick-and-pop for three or slip a
screen and finish at the rim. Spurs guard Tre Jones
called tossing Wembanyama lobs “a cheat code,” and
teammate Devin Vassell said, “I don’t understand
how he does some of the stuff he does.”
In a few months Wembanyama has amassed a
season’s worth of highlights. A preseason dunk over
the Heat’s Thomas Bryant from outside the restricted
area. A f lat-footed block of OG Anunoby. Pull-up
threes in transition and spectacular finishes at the
rim. “He’s lived up to the billing,” said Knicks coach
Tom Thibodeau, after Wembanyama suffered through
a rare off night (14 points and nine rebounds) in his
Madison Square Garden debut.
46
2 3
for
2 3

Such slipups are to be expected from a player still LEBRON JAMES

KING OF
so early in his development. And in San Antonio,
Wembanyama has landed in an ideal incubator.
During a decades-long dynasty, the Spurs molded a
generation of overseas imports such as Tony Parker

THE HILL
and Manu Ginóbili. It was Gregg Popovich who devel-
oped them and it is Popovich, who recently signed a
long-term contract extension with the franchise at
the age of 74, who will oversee the Wembanyama
Project. Popovich has enlisted Ginóbili as an unof-
ficial member of the coaching staff, working directly
with Wembanyama. “There’s never been anybody
like [Victor], but what I always say is he’s still a kid,”
BY CHRIS MANNIX
Ginóbili said on (where else?) Parker’s podcast. “You
got to be patient. He’s going to be extraordinary, but
there’s work to be done.”
For Wembanyama, the connection with Popovich
was immediate. “He just learned to know me quicker
than almost anyone I’ve met in my life before,”
said Wembanyama.
Popovich, meanwhile, quickly realized the spot-
light on Wembanyama—the Spurs issued 200 media
credentials for his regular-season debut, and a legion
of foreign press follow him on the road—wasn’t going
to faze him. “Fortunately for us, he’s a really mature,
prioritized young man and knows what he wants,”
said Popovich. “He’s already a pro; he’s a professional.
I don’t have to teach him what it means to be a pro. His
parents and other coaches have already done that.”
There will be no pressure on Wembanyama
from Popovich or San Antonio. Wembanyama has
center size, but the Spurs routinely pair him with

F R O M R I G H T: N AT H A N I E L S . B U T L E R / N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; A N D R E W D . B E R N S T E I N / N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S
Zach Collins or Charles Bassey, physical bigs who
allow Wembanyama to roam. And while flashes of
early-season success have been nice, San Antonio is
playing the long game. Develop now, worry about win-
ning later. Which means allowing Wembanyama to
play through early mistakes. “We promised ourselves
as a staff we were going to watch him for a while,” said L E BRON JAMES were for scorers,
Popovich. “We just want to observe . . . make sure we entered the NBA like Jordan
don’t skip steps but don’t overcoach right off the bat.” in 2003 with a (whom James
That suits Wembanyama. Between Parker, France’s game, by his own passed in 2019),
most accomplished NBA player, and Boris Diaw, admission, far Kobe Bryant (’20)
the former Spur who is now the general manager more Magic than and Karl Malone
of the French national team, Wembanyama has Michael, among the (’22). Kareem
seen firsthand the kind of players who once carried many reasons the Abdul-Jabbar’s
San Antonio to the postseason for 22 straight years—a fadeaway jumper 38,387 career
streak that began five years before he was born. Now James made points once
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

Wembanyama looks to not just replicate their success, Feb. 7 to eclipse seemed an
but also to surpass it. “I don’t want to limit myself to the all-time scoring unbreakable
WINTER 2023

what’s already been done,” he said. “I don’t want to record seemed record, like
limit myself to what’s conventional.” so improbable. Joe DiMaggio’s
48
Indeed, there’s little danger of that. Scoring records 56-game
 L E BRON

JAMES

hitting streak or intersect is in as he’s been over the longer—a lot longer— eldest son, Bronny, a
Wayne Gretzky’s durability. Kareem long haul, James has to pass John Stockton freshman at USC, gets
2,857 career points. averaged 78 games missed significant on the all-time assists there, and a recent
It seemed especially a season and until time in four of his last list, but he could rise Beats commercial,
unattainable for his last two years five seasons—could as high as second narrated by James’s
someone so dedicated never played fewer see him overtake with three or four wife, Savannah,
to finding teammates. than 31 minutes per Robert Parish for full years. suggested he’d be
In a 20-year career, game. In his career, the all-time lead There’s another, willing to wait for
Abdul-Jabbar never James has averaged in games played more personal goal. Bryce, a high school
averaged more 71 games—and never (1,611) and move into In the history of pro junior, too.
than 5.4 assists in fewer than 33 minutes the top 30 in total sports, few fathers— As moments
a season. In 20 full in any of them. rebounds along the Gordie Howe and go, few can top
seasons, James has So what’s left? way. James, already Ken Griffey Sr.—have breaking the scoring
only once averaged Forty thousand among the NBA’s played with their sons. record. Sharing the
fewer than six. points is within reach. top five playmakers, James has already floor with one—or
Where James Three more healthy would have to extend said he’d like to stay both—of his sons
and Abdul-Jabbar seasons—and as stout his career even in the NBA until his certainly would.
 2 3
for
2 3
NIKOLA JOKIĆ
HE’S ONE
OF A KIND
THERE IS NOBODY
in the NBA like
Nikola Jokić. He loves
harness racing yet
seems blasé about
basketball. After
winning the Finals in
June he bemoaned
having to stay in Denver
for the parade, and he
likened his dominance to
eating ice cream 10 days
in a row—as in, even
things you love doing
can become tiresome.
Still, on the court there
is no greater offensive
force in the league than
the Joker, who can
make sure his team gets
a good shot down the
floor on nearly every
possession.
While Jokić does
all this with the
nonchalance of a high
schooler working a
summer job for spending
money, his demeanor
belies his will to win.
Even if we’ve never
quite seen someone like
him before—essentially
a better-shooting
Magic Johnson in
a burly, seven-foot
body—he’s as great
and driven as any of his
contemporaries. The
proof is in the ring.
PHOTOGRAPH BY
GREG NELSON
2 3

2
for
3 JUST SIX SEASONS INTO HER PRO
CAREER, THE LAS VEGAS FORWARD AND
WNBA FINALS HERO HAS ENTERED THE
GOAT CONVERSATION,
AND HER CASE IS ONLY GOING
TO BECOME MORE COMPELLING IN
THE YEARS TO COME
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

WINTER 2023
 A’JA

WILSON

First, Wilson pulled up from midrange. Then, she

drove to the basket despite four black jerseys in the
A’JA WILSON paint, all left to look on as she made the layup. She

SHE’S
next shot over two contesting Liberty players, indif-
ferent to the hands in her face, for a picture-perfect
11-footer. She put all her muscle into a tough spin
move in the post. Finally, she went one-on-one with

BAAAAAD
Jonquel Jones, the most aggressive defender for the
opposing Liberty, and drew a foul.
The ball never started in her hands. But there
was no question on any of these possessions that it
would end there.
Wilson scored nine straight points for the Aces.
(She contributed four rebounds in this stretch, too,
en route to a final line of 24 points and 16 boards.)
Those few minutes of dominance put both game and
BY title within reach for Las Vegas, which clinched its
EMMA second straight championship with a 70–69 win.
BACCELLIERI And they showed why Wilson is the best player in
the league right now, certainly, and perhaps ever.
If GOAT talk seems premature for a 27-year-old—
fair enough. But it’s hard to watch Wilson and not at
least consider the possibility. Even in a guard-driven

MIDWAY THROUGH the third quarter of Game 4 of

the 2023 WNBA Finals, with her team down by
eight, A’ja Wilson took over.
If ever there were a situation for a team to sim-
ply bail on a Finals game, this would have been it.
Wilson’s Aces had a 2–1 lead in the best-of-five series
F R O M L E F T: B R I A N B A B I N E A U / N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; S A R A H S T I E R / G E T T Y I M A G E S

against the Liberty. But Las Vegas was battered by

injuries: After spending the second half of the season
without generational talent Candace Parker, the Aces
were now also missing point guard Chelsea Gray
and center Kiah Stokes, both of whom had suffered
recent injuries, forcing the team to field a starting
lineup in Game 4 that it had never used before and
that included center Cayla George making her first
WNBA start since 2018. Las Vegas had trailed since
the first quarter, and, by the third, it wasn’t hard to
see a case for packing it up and trying to close it out
at home in Game 5.
Wilson felt otherwise. SELFIE-ASSURED
In the space of three minutes, she made the game Wilson earned the right to pose with the
her own, needing just a few possessions to take Finals MVP trophy by averaging 21.3 points
53
control and show off the breadth of her skill set. and 12.5 boards—and even hitting one three.
2 3
for
2 3
league, with its corresponding focus on perimeter play,
Wilson shines. (Of all the trivia she generated this
season, here is perhaps the most insightful: Wilson
became the first WNBA player to score 40 points in
a game without attempting a three.) At 6' 4", she is
remarkably quick. Depending on the scenario, she can
evoke a classic big or a much more modern position-
less player. The league has never seen a talent quite
like Wilson. And, yes, it’s time to start questioning
whether it has ever seen one as great as her.
Just ask her coach.
Becky Hammon played 16 seasons in the WNBA,
either facing or teaming up with everyone who played
a key role in the first two decades of the league, and
she is unequivocal here. “I played against all of the
GOATs,” Hammon said at the Aces’ championship
parade. “I’m gonna put it out there. . . . This is gonna
be the GOAT of all GOATs.”
Wilson’s résumé speaks for itself. There is a statue
of her at her alma mater, South Carolina, where she
led the women’s basketball team to its first champion-
ship, in 2017, and was National Player of the Year in
’18. The No. 1 draft pick that year, she was the unani-
mous Rookie of the Year, and her game has only grown
in the five years since, during which she has led a
franchise that had a winning percentage of .291 in the
three years before her arrival to three Finals appear-
ances. Wilson has learned to use her length more
efficiently on defense; she has added a slew of more
complicated moves on offense. Every opponent has to
center its defensive scheme on Wilson. But none has
quite figured out how to guard her. She is already one
of just three WNBA players to have multiple MVPs and
multiple Defensive Player of the Year Awards. (The
other two are Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes.) And
this is with Wilson still squarely in her prime. Who
knows how much more hardware is in her future?
In 2023, Wilson set personal highs in points (22.8),
rebounds (9.5) and blocks (2.2) per game. It seemed
somewhat unjust that she did not come away with a
third MVP: A three-way race fractured the vote, with

WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

NEW REIGN
IN SPAIN
BY in Sydney in August, jubilant postmatch refused to admit to any
ANDREW
GASTELUM thanks to a goal from celebration into an wrongdoing until he
Olga Carmona. international firestorm. issued a half-hearted
But as Spain’s golden Hermoso, the all-time apology, referring to
generation received its Spanish women’s his outraged critics as
IT WAS SUPPOSED medals, Spanish soccer goalscorer, said Spanish “idiots” and labeling
to be the greatest day federation president federation officials the kiss consensual.
in Spanish women’s Luis Rubiales grabbed pressured her into After Hermoso disputed
soccer history. After forward Jenni Hermoso signing a statement Rubiales’s claims days
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

never having advanced with both hands and saying the kiss was later, pressure mounted
past the first knockout kissed her on the lips “a mutual gesture” on the president to
WINTER 2023

E R I C K W. R A S C O

round, Spain won its with the world watching. before the team even resign. But Rubiales,
first world title with a The immediate fallout left Stadium Australia. who also served as a
1–0 win over England from that turned a Rubiales initially UEFA vice president,
 GEORGIA FOOTBALL

DAWGGONE
the Sun’s Alyssa Thomas garnering the most first-
place nods, while the Liberty’s Breanna Stewart took
DOMINANCE
home the award. The day after the MVP announce-
ment, a furious Hammon blamed herself for not play-
ing Wilson more in the fourth quarters of blowouts.
Her star had been punished for her efficiency, she said.
“She put together the greatest individual perfor- SHORTLY AFTER that the team was about
mance this league has ever seen,” said Hammon, Georgia clinched the to lose 15 players to the
clutching an index card full of stats to make her national championship NFL draft.
point. “Efficiency, field goal percentage, rebounding, with two late scores Any fears that Bennett
defense, the whole thing.” against Alabama in the would be less focused

BY
MARK BECHTEL
But Wilson got the last laugh. She took home the 2022 CFP title game, with a ring already on
Finals MVP, the one piece of hardware missing from Stetson Bennett visited his finger were allayed.
her trophy cabinet, and Hammon got one more chance coach Kirby Smart. While Georgia had stifled
to talk up her star. The quarterback’s its opponents en route to
“I’m trying to think of an NBA comp or a WNBA performance in leading its first title, last season
comp,” Hammon said onstage at the team’s cham- the Dawgs to their first it simply steamrolled
pionship parade. “But there is no one in the world championship in four them, especially when it
like A’ja Wilson.” decades had already mattered. In the Dawgs’
conferred upon him three postseason games
a sort of permanent they scored 157 points,
BMOC status. culminating in a 65–7
“Everybody’s telling destruction of TCU in
me I should just ride off January’s CFP title
into the sunset, be the game. In those three
doubled down during a from FIFA, as well legendary quarterback games, Bennett threw
federation assembly, as Spain’s decision who won a national for 11 touchdowns with a
repeatedly yelling, “I’m to fire Vilda, whose title,” Bennett (below) passing efficiency rating
not going to resign,” controversial said to Smart. “Why of 204.86.
to tepid applause from management was don’t we win it again?” A meager-by-
supporters, including at the center of a The former walk-on comparison 10 players
Spain women’s coach player mutiny in 2022 had a year of eligibility were drafted from
Jorge Vilda. calling for improved left, and he was going to that second title team
Spain’s players working conditions. use it—despite the fact (including Bennett, who
banded together behind As Rubiales faces went to the L.A. Rams
the hashtag #SeAcabó charges of sexual
(“It’s Over”), refusing assault and coercion
to play for the country from Spanish
until there was a prosecutors, Hermoso
change in leadership. and Spain can finally
The #SeAcabó start to look toward a
initiative, named new era. It comes at an
after a tweet from unprecedented moment
two-time Ballon d’Or in women’s soccer
winner Alexia Putellas, after an otherwise
gained global support, iconic tournament
mirroring the #MeToo that became the most
movement in calling attended Women’s
for change to women’s World Cup and broke
sports and beyond. TV viewership records
J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H

The pressure played around the globe,

a factor in Rubiales’s proving that change is
subsequent resignation not on the horizon—it’s
and three-year ban already here.
 2 3
for
2 3

OHTANI VS. TROUT

INSTANT CLASSIC

BY STEPHEN CANNELL A

THE YEAR’S signature at least 99.8 mph. With

baseball moment the count 2–1, Trout
happened before the swung and missed
season even started. at a heater in what
At least that’s how might have been the
most fans and players most violent hack of
usually look at the his career. With the
World Baseball Classic: count full—of course—
It’s a fun preseason Ohtani got him to swing
exhibition, but it lacks through a slider on
the intensity, the stakes the outside corner. As
and the star power of, measured by velocity
say, soccer’s World Cup. and spin rate, it was
Real baseball starts on the best breaking pitch
MLB’s Opening Day. Ohtani had thrown
That perception since arriving from
shifted in a big way on Japan in 2018.
March 21, in the ninth The details were
inning of the WBC impressive, but what
final between the U.S. mattered more was the
and Japan. Two outs, vibe. It was arguably
nobody on, Japan the biggest stage
clinging to a 3–2 lead both players have
and the tournament performed on: Trout has
coming down to an played in all of three
at bat the baseball world postseason games in
had been dreaming of: his MLB career, none
Shohei Ohtani on the since 2014, while
mound, Mike Trout at Ohtani has never been
the plate. The sport’s in the playoffs. And the
two best players—and, intensity with which
for added drama, Angels both stars pursued
teammates—dueling the title throughout
with an international the WBC elevated
championship on the entire event—in
the line. ’23 and beyond. Said
MASTERPRESS/SAMUR AI

The showdown didn’t Ohtani after he and his

J A PA N/GE T T Y IM A GE S

disappoint. Ohtani Japanese teammates

started with a slider for had celebrated, “I
a ball, then threw four believe this is the best
fastballs that were all moment in my life.”
 2 3
for
2 3

AFTER A CASE OF THE TWISTIES LED TO AN EXTENDED PERIOD AWAY FROM

THE SPORT, THE GREATEST GYMNAST IN HISTORY RETURNED TO
COMPETITION AND SERVED NOTICE THAT 2024 COULD BE A VERY BIG YEAR
 SIMONE BILES

BACK TO THE
FUTURE
BY
STEPHANIE
APSTEIN

HE BEST PART of Simone Biles’s 2023 is 2024.

When this year began, it seemed like we might
never see the greatest gymnast of all time perform
again. Biles had long been planning to end her career
at the Tokyo Olympics, which the pandemic pushed to
2021. But when she developed a mental block called
the twisties, which robbed her of her ability to locate
herself in space and left her at risk of catastrophic
injury, she had to pull out of all but one competition
there. (She is Simone Biles, so even after fighting
through the worst week of her career and stripping
down her routine, she earned bronze on the balance
beam.) On her post-Olympics tour, she performed
only skills she could land safely. And then, for close
to a year, she stayed away from the sport.
Gymnastics scared her, and it had stopped being
fun. But in September 2022, she tentatively returned
to the gym outside Houston, ostensibly to regain her
fitness, but also to prove to herself that she could. She
took off most of that October and November, then
played around with some combinations last December.
“I really feel like [coach Laurent Landi] is always
one step ahead of me,” she later said. “So every time
NAOMI BAK ER/GE T T Y IMAGES

I would come into the gym, he was like, ‘O.K., so I

have some set routines for you.’ And I’m like, ‘What?
I’m literally just trying to get in shape!’ ”
But by January, she was ready to return to prac-
ticing twice a day. In March, around the time she
59
turned 26, she took her other coach—Laurent’s wife,
 MEDAL MOUTH
2 3 A rejuvenated Biles couldn’t contain her
for grin after winning the all-around gold at the
2 3
worlds—even if it was her sixth time.

Cécile—to dinner at a Mexican restaurant to discuss But she worried that fans would not embrace her
a return to competition. comeback. Within the gymnastics community she
“When [margaritas] get in the mix, who knows received plenty of support when she pulled out of
what you’re gonna say?” Biles recalled with a laugh. the events in Tokyo, and many athletes thanked her
They decided that after her May wedding to Packers for starting a conversation about pressure in sports.
defensive back Jonathan Owens, she would “go full But there was no shortage of insults hurled at her
force,” she said. “Kind of put life on hold.” online. So when every arena she entered sounded
Almost before she knew it, she found herself out- like a Taylor Swift concert, she was relieved.
side Chicago in August for the U.S. Classic—her first “What shocks me the most is everyone’s so sup-
competition in two years and two days—where she portive,” she said at the U.S. Classic. “In the crowd,
dominated. Then it was on to the national champi- all the girls, all of the signs . . . the outpouring of love
onships, in San Jose, Calif., three weeks later, where and support that I had on Twitter, on Instagram and
she dominated. Then to the world championships, in the arena was just really shocking and surpris-
in Antwerp, Belgium, in October, where . . . you get ing to me, that they still have so much belief in me,
it. In that stretch she became the first gymnast to they still love me and it just makes my heart warm,
win eight all-around U.S. titles and, in Belgium, her because it’s nice to come out here and have all that
four gold medals—including her record-tying sixth support, especially in a time like this where I was
in the all-around—and the silver she won gave her really nervous to compete again. I can’t ask for more.”
37 medals at world championships and the Olympics, Cue the speculation, which Biles did her best to
the most in history. dodge. After the U.S. Classic, she said, “It’s just like
when you get married, they ask you when you’re
having a baby. You come to Classics; they’re asking

BRITTNEY GRINER

ON THE
ROAD BACK
BY MICHAEL ROSENBERG
T I M C L AY T O N / C O R B I S / G E T T Y I M A G E S ( B I L E S ) ;
RON A L D M A R T INE Z /GE T T Y IM A GE S (GRINER)

and her full personal

story will not be told for
several years. But ’23
was so much more than
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

a bridge. It was a test

of her spirit and will. It
WINTER 2023

BRITTNEY GRINER’S affirmed her standing in

news story seemed a sport that embraced
to conclude in 2022, her and challenged her

you about the Olympics.” At nationals, she said with
a grin, “Y’all are kind of nosy sometimes.” Biles
finally admitted in September that she plans to end
her comeback in Paris next year. She will compete in
one more Olympics, and she will do it on her terms.
At the worlds, Biles landed her Yurchenko double
pike on vault, a move so challenging that no other
woman has even attempted it in competition—and
so dangerous that the International Gymnastics
Federation has artificially lowered its score to dis-
courage other gymnasts from trying it and hurting
themselves. Biles once said she added it to her arse-
place in a country that
sometimes has not.
Griner returned to the
WNBA after missing the
2022 season because—
this is still such a jarring
phrase—she was
imprisoned in Russia.
She was detained in
February ’22 and then
sentenced to nine years
in prison for possession
of vape cartridges
with cannabis oil. She
was freed at the end of
last year—this is also
jarring—in an exchange
for an arms dealer called
the Merchant of Death.
Her year was a
triumph, but not
always a happy
one. Griner
wiped away
SIMONE
BILES
Once, that sort of legacy might have been enough
for her. But she found another motivation as she
returned to competition. At 26, nearly every time she
does anything, she breaks an age record in a sport
often populated by high schoolers. Biles was the old-
est woman ever to win the all-around at nationals
and the oldest U.S. woman to compete at the world
championships in more than 50 years. She said with
experience comes a smarter training regimen and a
sharper sense of purpose. (“At this point, nobody’s
forcing me out here,” she said. “This is truly me.”)
And as the NCAA’s name, image and likeness policy
has allowed some of her national team teammates to
earn money while they compete in college, prolonging
their careers, the face of gymnastics is beginning to
change. “I think having me and some of the other
girls that are a little bit older, and seeing what we’re
doing and being more mature physically and mentally
in the gym, it just gives [young gymnasts] all the
hope in the world that you don’t have to peak at 16,”
she said. “Your time is still coming.”
Remarkably, so is hers.
tears before the tip-off Griner, who is gay, said
of her first game, then that players had to
scored 18 points. She keep their sexuality
was harassed at an private under Mulkey.
airport by a right-wing This year, a few days
media figure who yelled, before Mulkey won her
“She hates America!” fourth national title—
She dunked twice in the this time at LSU—the
WNBA All-Star Game in coach said of Griner,
July but missed three “I’m glad she’s safe,
games to take care of she’s sound.” But Mulkey
her mental health. She also said they hadn’t
had security with her spoken since Griner had
at all times and said been released.
she would no longer Griner became a
play overseas. political prisoner for
Griner has been a full- a minor offense and
time star and sometime an object of criticism
outcast since her days at home for a deal she
at Baylor, where she won did not make. This was
a national championship supposed to be the
but left with a frosty year she returned to
relationship with her her normal life. If only it
coach, Kim Mulkey. were that simple.
 S O

T Y

DAMAR
HAMLIN

MORE THAN
A MOMENT
BY
GREG BISHOP

SINCE HIS HEA RT

STOPPED ON NATIONA L
T V, THE BILLS SA FETY
HA S DEDICATED
HIMSELF TO HELPING
OTHERS. HE SAYS IT’S
WHAT HE WA S SAVED
FOR A ND WA S A LWAYS
MEA NT TO DO
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

WINTER 2023
 DAMAR HAMLIN IS on the phone
from Buffalo after two weeks
spent seesawing through every
human emotion, each day simul-
taneously exactly what he wanted
and not nearly enough. He’s dis-
cussing a video of himself a reporter put on X (the
platform formerly known as Twitter) on Nov. 5,
specifically, the text he wrote when he reposted it.
It read, in part: y’all don’t know the half of it.
In the video, the Buffalo safety walks onto the
field at Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium, alone, before
the Bills’ Week 9 game against the Bengals. He stops
near midfield. Kneels down. Appears to contemplate
deeply. Snaps a selfie. And strolls off.
The video cannot show what he feels deep inside,
he says. “What it truly takes to do what I’m doing.
What it takes to truly, actually, return to something
that actually kills you.”
Some people, Hamlin continues, touch a lit stove,
realize how hot it is and never do it again. But he’s
not just touching the NFL equivalent of a blistering
stove; he’s placing his hand on there, intentionally,
for months. “To return to something that actually
stopped my heart and, you know, killed me, man . . . I
[looked] death in the face. I faced death.”
Quick pause. “I made it through, by the grace of God.”
Hamlin survived, making the heart symbol,
formed with two hands put together, his personal
marker of resilience. But he does not want to be
defined exclusively by what happened in January
on that same field in Cincinnati. Instead, he trains
his focus forward.
“To be able to still be who I was even before what
happened, that’s the journey, the day in, day out
of having to realize my reality of what happened
to me—and still trying to chase this dream . . . to
show strength through all the situations where we
might not want to, where that might not be the first
emotion that you want to express.
“It’s not easy at all,” he says. “It’s not even as
easy as I thought it would be. It’s super tough. It’s
extremely tough.”
Hamlin is being honest, not complaining or ask-
ing for sympathy. That’s not who he is. Instead he’s
ADRIAN KRAUS/AP

trying to help others, pushing for donations and

awareness and change.
Damar Hamlin hasn’t changed, not even after Jan. 2.

63
2 3
for
2 3
SINCE 2018, John Bush Jr. has worked as a respiratory
therapist on Paycor Stadium’s emergency action team.
Through almost five full seasons, he had never needed
to step onto the field. Not until Jan. 2, nine minutes into
a game the Bengals led, 7–3, when Hamlin made a tackle
and collapsed and his heart stopped beating.
Bush describes what happened next as “like a dream,”
in which he saw himself from above, like watching an
episode of Grey’s Anatomy in which he stars. His team and
the Bills’ medical staff administered CPR and applied an
automated external defibrillator (AED). After 19 minutes,
they loaded Hamlin onto an ambulance. What happened
would later be diagnosed as commotio cordis, when a
blow to the chest makes the heart have an abnormal
rhythm, leading to cardiac arrest.
Commissioner Roger Goodell would call Bush to thank
him and the other first responders. But it was the on-field
reactions that night that stood out. The players and
coaches indicated endless respect and admiration for
Hamlin. “They were calling out to him, encouraging
him, telling him to stay strong,” Bush says. “Both
sides. It just felt . . . different. Even looking at their
faces: compassion, hurt, uncertainty. They were
distraught. There’s no way they could have finished
that game, because their hearts were with him.”
Bush stayed with Hamlin in the ambulance. He
already considered Hamlin a member of the family.
(Bush has one son and one daughter, both adults.)
He leaned in and whispered, “I’m going to get you
home to your mom.”
When Hamlin woke up the next day, about 16 hours
after he collapsed, he wrote out three now-famous
words that summarized the man who almost died
and the mindset he carried forward: “Did we win?”
Bush, who came to visit Hamlin in the hospital,
caught his gaze that afternoon. Neither said a word.
Both tapped their chests with their fists, the same way.
“A miracle?” Bush sometimes wonders. “We saw
him at his most vulnerable,” he says. Bush and the
 other first responders have had regular reunions DAMAR
with Hamlin since that night, including at the ESPYs,
HAMLIN
where Hamlin honored the first responders with the
Pat Tillman Award for Service. They also saw him in
November, when Buffalo returned to Cincinnati. “His
smile was platinum,” Bush says. “It’s indescribable,
just for him to be . . . alive.” BACK FROM THE BRINK

When Hamlin went to tackle Cincinnati’s

Tee Higgins in Week 17 last season, he never
LONG BEFORE HIS heart stopped, Damar Hamlin could have imagined all that would follow.
wanted to change the world. Friends, confidants
and coaches all say so. Hamlin, now 25, grew up
in McKees Rocks, Pa., a borough northwest of
Pittsburgh. Known as The Rocks, it scores a 1 out
of 100 on NeighborhoodScout’s “Total Crime Index”—
meaning it’s safer than only 1% of U.S. neighbor-
hoods. Hamlin’s mettle and his mindset were forged
there, enhanced after a scholarship helped him enroll
at Central Catholic, a private school. He idolized local
hero Darrelle Revis and desired to create his own
island. Determined never to be regarded as someone
who wasted even a sliver of potential, he won state
defensive player of the year his senior season.
Even then, Hamlin dreamt of wider impact—in
The Rocks, in Pittsburgh, for kids growing up amid
a landscape of examples he describes as “what not
to do.” He wanted to become an inspiration, the
kind he never had.
In 2016, he enrolled at Pittsburgh, a four-star
recruit who passed on interest from powers like
Ohio State and Penn State. By ’18, he was starting
and the centerpiece of an elite defensive backfield. organizations in those cities. In March, Hamlin
In his senior year, he was named a captain and made spoke at a Capitol Hill event introducing the Access to
second-team All-ACC. AEDs Act, filed in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Bills took Hamlin in the sixth round of the UC Medical Center in Cincinnati, where he was
2021 draft. He had already started a charitable foun- taken that January night, also expanded its training
dation and become immersed in community service, programs for CPR and AEDs.
working with and mentoring kids. His Chasing M’s And there was the toy drive GoFundMe he had
Foundation, started in May ’20, is dedicated to started, which before that night in Cincinnati had
health and safety and youth development, primar- some $3,000 in donations. Suddenly, there was more
ily through sports. In every summer except the one than $9 million, from more than 22,000 individuals,
F R O M L E F T: K I R K I R W I N / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; K E V I N S A B I T U S / G E T T Y I M A G E S

before his rookie season and during the pandemic,
Hamlin has hosted free football camps for local
teens around Pittsburgh.
His impact has only broadened over the past 11
frenetic months. Some of it was indirect, like the
attention he generated toward AEDs, which skyrock-
eted in demand. Schools and youth organizations
ordered them in such droves that there is now a
shortage; the industry calls it “The Damar Effect.”
More directly, Chasing M’s held a CPR tour this
past offseason in partnership with the American
Hea r t A ssociat ion, mov ing f rom Buf fa lo to
Pittsburgh to Cincinnati to conduct free CPR
training and provide no-cost AEDs to youth sports
65
that he would use to support his charitable work.
Hamlin hosted another camp in Pittsburgh in
July, stretching it over three days; this was big-
ger, broader, a spectacle worthy of sustaining the
attention and momentum from that night. The
city of Pittsburgh designated the final day, July 9,
Damar Hamlin Day. As part of the event, Hamlin
hosted CPR education clinics (this was when the
tour hit Pittsburgh), held a charity softball game,
a youth football camp and a high school football
all-star game.
“I hope he’ll be known more for this work than
football,” says Dr. B. Woods W. Curry, who treated
Hamlin on the field at Paycor Stadium. “I’m not
downplaying the work of football players. But this
will be much more influential. It’s going to have an
exponential ripple effect.”
 DAMAR

HAMLIN

DAMAR HAMLIN SAYS his faith was never shaken.

The Lord, he says, “hand-selected me for this.
When everything tries to divide us—race, politics,
differences—he chose me to bring the world together.
He brought me through my situation, pulled me out
of it, without nearly a scratch on me.
“I feel that energy, that I’m truly selected,” he says.
“Who better than me for this mission than I’m on?
“I truly feel . . . no one.”
His goal, even as a teenager: to build a life worth
living. Hamlin doesn’t believe what he’s carrying is
heavy. In some ways, he says, it’s enviable, this position.
He was active for only two of the Bills’ first
11 games this season. Make no mistake: He wants
to play more. But wanting to play more and tying
his broader happiness to snap counts—44 through
Week 11 this season, mostly on special teams, with
only nine on defense—are not the same thing.
Chasing M’s started as a clothing brand he estab-
lished during his Pitt days. The name summarized inspiration. “I just saw it [before] through the game
the ambition. Chasing Millions. But priorities change. of football,” he says. “But I promise you, I was gonna
Hamlin’s life is bigger than chasing millions now. get there.”
With football, he says, simply, that he wanted to
return to end his career on his terms. “I just wanted
to show myself that I could do it.” BUSH, THE RESPIRATORY THERAPIST who helped
He says his calling has always gone beyond the save Hamlin’s life, knew the Bills would return to
field. “It’s important to highlight that this is a space Cincinnati this season, but not that Hamlin would
I always saw myself getting, one way or another,” extend a dinner invitation to the first responders and
he says. He always thought he’d be able to provide medical staff who saved him. Bush showed up early

OKLAHOMA SOFTBALL defensive player of

the year, they rose to

THE SOONERS, the challenge. The ’23

Sooners became the

BETTER THAN EVER first team ever to lead

OKLAHOMA SOFTBALL
came into 2023 carrying
a legacy that could have
felt like a burden: The
Sooners had won back-
to-back championships.
BY
They had also just
EMMA
BACCELLIERI graduated the best
the NCAA in batting
average (.366), fielding
percentage (.987) and
ERA (0.96). (Yes, that’s
player in program right, they hit above .350
history—NCAA home run while allowing less than
queen Jocelyn Alo—and one run per game.) They
had been tasked with won a third straight title.
integrating a few high- And built the longest
profile transfers. Led win streak in D-I softball
by shortstop Grace Turk history at 53 games—
(right), the national and counting.

PLENTY TO CELEBRATE
A week after feting his saviors at a
dinner in Cincinnati, Hamlin made
a tackle against Denver.
to Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse and stopped by the bar,
where he bumped into Mario Hamlin, Damar’s father.
“Can you bless the food before we eat?” Mario asked.
The dinner was set up in a private space, and Hamlin
traversed the room, intent on speaking to each of the
responders, thanking them and catching up. Bush
never saw him break eye contact with who he was
speaking to, ensuring that each person felt important.
Food flowed, juicy steaks and all the sides. But
before anyone put fork to plate, Bush stood before the
group and spoke from his heart. He gave thanks for
the dinner, that moment they were all now sharing—
for perilous experiences that, if channeled properly,
can lead to ever-widening impact.
More than anything, though, Bush thanked
A N D Y C R O S S / M E D I A N E W S G R O U P/ T H E D E N V E R P O S T/ G E T T Y I M A G E S ( TA C K L E ) ; S A R A H P H I P P S /
Hamlin. Nobody would have blamed Hamlin if he
T H E O K L A H O M A N / U S A T O D AY N E T W O R K ( S O F T B A L L ) ; C O U R T E S Y O F D A M A R H A M L I N ( D I N N E R )
had retreated from the spotlight. Instead, Hamlin
embraced the attention heaped upon him, but used
it only in ways to help others. Wow, Bush thought,
what healthy perspective.
That night, Hamlin surprised the 10 attendees with
scholarships in their names to benefit local youth.
They were $1,000 each for students from under-
served communities to put toward private area high
schools or colleges. This, Hamlin calls his “extra
level of thank you.”
Hamlin told Bush that night, “I remember you said
you would breathe for me the whole time.”
“Yeah,” Bush responded, “and I said I was gonna
get you to your mom.”
Hamlin smiled. “Oh, man,” he said. “You just
gave me chills.”
The next night, Hamlin walked into Paycor
Stadium for another NFL game. He knew he wouldn’t
2 3
for
2 3
be playing. He didn’t force any sort of rousing speech.
He simply said to individual teammates, “Go win.”
Before kickoff, Hamlin smiled and dapped and
embraced. He wore custom cleats onto the same
field where he nearly died not even a year earlier.
They read 3 is back across the heels.
Curry, the doctor, watched that moment unspool.
“Some people take these opportunities to look
inward,” he says. “I’m sure he has done that. And some
people will take the opportunity. He’s using a plat-
form [from] a really traumatic incident to help save
other people. There’s a word for that. Inspirational
is the term for it.”
HAMLIN MET THE FAMILY of a teenage football player
from New Jersey recently. The boy had dropped to
the turf, just like he did. But there was not an AED
nearby, and the boy died. Hamlin brought the boy’s
family to Pittsburgh for that camp weekend in July.
“Just to show them some love,” he says. “All these
new eyes on me, it just took the same vision I had
and made it global. I want an everlasting legacy, an
everlasting impact.”
The NFL moved on, moved forward, after Hamlin’s
injury. Always does. Hamlin understands this. Over
these recent weeks, throughout the first half of this
season, Hamlin leaned into having a healthy perspec-
tive more than ever. Every emotion fought for more
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
prominent placement in his brain, frustration and
anxiety and fear and inspiration and determination
WINTER 2023
and resolve existing in the same place, at the same
time. Hamlin knew he had enough. He also knew
he wanted more.
To understand the Tush Push, start with the league’s most
valuable backside. Jalen Hurts’s lower half isn’t like most
lower halves. His legs extend from his midsection like
sequoias that are the envy of their forest, fortified by a
lifetime in sports and his high school hobby of powerlifting.
Hurts squats more than 600 pounds and could,
2 3
according to those who train him, surpass 750 if
for
2 3 he focused solely on strength. His coaches find his
lower half more impressive than his arm, which
can chuck footballs country miles. If that lower
half isn’t the strongest among NFL quarterbacks,
it’s in the top three.
There’s no scarier sight for defenses in 2023.
The Eagles face a third- or fourth-and-short. They
pack in together at the line, as Hurts scans the
defense. The ball snaps. He moves, inching ahead,
behind one of the NFL’s best offensive lines. When
his movement stops, help arrives, in the form of
one or two teammates lined up behind him whose
sole goal is to target his buttocks and, well, push,
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
as hard as possible.
Last year the Eagles dialed up their bodies-on-
WINTER 2023
top-of-bodies invention 41 times during the regular
season and made either a first down or touchdown
on 37 of those attempts. They also deployed six in
Super Bowl LVII and had six conversions, two of
which were TDs, that gave Philly a chance to win.
The Tush Push is so ruthlessly effective that it has
earned multiple nicknames: It has also been called the
Brotherly Shove, the Rump Bump and the Two-Cheek
Sneak. (You could also go with the Seat Cheat or
Can-Do; for our money, the moniker should be Baby
Got Back–ed, in honor of Sir Mix-a-Lot.)
A D A M B O W/ I C O N S P O R T S W I R E / G E T T Y I M A G E S
But there’s more to the play than a quarterback’s
incredibly strong seat and some clever branding. It
looks like a simple display of brute force, combin-
ing the bluntness of a traditional QB sneak with the
irresistible force of a 30-car pileup. But the most
dominant play in today’s NFL was made possible
by a cycle of rule changes, coaching innovations and
cross-sport pollination that stretches back nearly
two decades.
70
 HIGH-LEVERAGE SITUATION

Philly lost the Super Bowl but won the short-

yardage trench battles: Hurts went 6-for-6 with
a pair of touchdowns on Tush Pushes.

The Bush Push was illegal the millisecond Bush’s

hands touched Leinart’s back: In 2005 both college
football and the NFL outlawed any direct aid to
ballcarriers. Bush was not f lagged, though, and,
decision-makers at both levels soon changed their
minds. In ’06 the NFL removed language in its rule
book that forbade pushing runners. Members of its
competition committee have said that the impetus
for the change was to remove a difficult judgment
call from a referee’s responsibilities—it was often
impossible to discern whether a player had sprinted
forward to block or push a teammate.
The quarterback sneak has existed as long as foot-
ball, but innovations have happened slowly—perhaps
because the play has always been effective. In the
71
1980s and ’90s, San Francisco’s West Coast offense,
2 3
for
2 3

with its sped-up tempo, tasked Joe Montana and
Steve Young with more sneaks than ever, reason-
ing that the nature of their offense made defenses
more tired. Montana notably scored on a sneak in
the 49ers’ first Super Bowl victory (XVI, over the
Bengals). Young clinched another Super Bowl berth
in the ’94 season with a sneak-score against Dallas
in the NFC championship.
Tom Brady elevated the QB sneak to an art form:
He retired with 124 short-yardage conversions, the
most in NFL history, and the second-highest con-
version rate (90.5%, second only to David Garrard’s
91.1% among QBs with at least 50 tries). Longtime
Patriots offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia
attributes that success to many factors: play design,
variations and Brady’s innate ability to decide, in
a split second, which gap to dive into. He almost
always picked at the last moment, after training
all season to identify “natural entry points” in A
gaps on both sides of the center or B gaps between
guards and tackles.
As teams tried to mimic Brady, the volume of
quarterback sneaks rose, from 47 in 2017 to 87 the
next year. When Sirianni became the Eagles’ head
coach in ’21, he inherited Hurts from the previous
draft class. One area that his staff of innovative
assistants targeted as ripe for improvement was
the classic sneak. Some Philly staffers say the twist
started in the brain of then offensive coordinator
Shane Steichen; others believe it originated from
more of a group effort. Regardless, all contributed
to the design and its evolution.
The Eagles debuted a version in the 2022 season
opener while clinging to a three-point fourth-quarter
lead against the Lions and facing a critical fourth-
and-1 at the Detroit 40-yard line. They lined up for a
sneak, with tight end Dallas Goedert behind Hurts
in the backfield. They snapped the ball and . . . there
it was . . . the shove. Hurts picked up the first down,
and football was introduced to the play the league
would spend the next two seasons debating, celebrat-
ing, studying, mocking and imitating. It seemed
new—but Philly had been working on it for longer
than anybody knew.
Philadelphia started with a single pusher before
deploying a Triple I formation Tush Push against
Arizona in October 2022. The success of that twist
led to the permanent addition of a second pusher.
With two additional hands, plus what the Eagles
call their offensive line’s “leverage game,” the team
knew what soon became obvious to the rest of the
NFL: Nobody could stop it.

PITCH CLOCK 1,500 pitches thrown. A bringing a more action-

GOOD TIMES
rule change that seemed
cataclysmic in spring
training was mundane
by October.
The pitch timer
revolutionized baseball
in 2023, shortening
BY STEPHEN CANNELL A games—the average
regular-season contest
over the Diamondbacks, was 24 minutes faster
the most notable than in ’22—and, along
moments of the World with other rule changes,
Series were the ones
that didn’t happen. In the
WITH ALL DUE respect first Fall Classic played
packed pace to the MLB
experience. Hitters and
pitchers acclimated to
the clock well; in the
postseason there were
only seven violations, or
one every six games. In
the end the clock was
widely embraced by fans
and players. See, MLB?
Change isn’t so hard
after all.
E R I C K W. R A S C O

to Corey Seager, Adolis with the pitch timer

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

García and the rest of there were zero clock

the Rangers in their win violations over nearly
WINTER 2023

72
 MA X VERSTAPPEN

LAPPING
THE FIELD
LONG BEFORE the debut of the Tush Push, Ted Rath,
the Eagles’ director of sports performance, saw the
staff diagramming a strange, new short-yardage play.
It reminded Rath of a rugby scrum, which reminded
him of a Scotsman he had met when he was working
for the Dolphins in 2016: Richie Gray, a longtime
coach in the Scottish professional rugby union and
for several national teams. If you haven’t heard of
Gray or his influence on professional football, that’s
intentional. He rarely gives interviews, especially to
U.S. outlets or about his work in the NFL. But Gray
has developed and taught his own brand of “tackle
methodology” and has been a consultant to NFL
teams and individual players for years. One protégé,
Christian Wilkins, set a league record for defensive
tackles with 98 stops for Miami last season.
In 2015, while Gray was coaching South Africa’s IN THE INTEREST of the 26-year-old. He’s
national rugby team in the World Cup, a friend called saving time, paper and always had an absurd
before the Springboks’ semifinal match against ink, instead of talking amount of talent, a
New Zealand. This friend wanted to connect Gray about all the races mix of instinct, guts
to Dave Puloka, the Dolphins’ head of strength and Max Verstappen won and reflexes he got
BY
MARK BECHTEL

conditioning, who wanted to learn more about Gray’s on his way to clinching from his parents,
brand of performance coaching. his third straight world both of whom raced.
“The NFL is two things,” Gray says he realized drivers’ championship, In 2023 he had the
when he began working with Miami the following let’s talk about the best car as well
spring. “Block and tackle.” Seven years later, the ones he didn’t win: as plenty of luck,
Eagles invited Gray to take a look at the play people He finished second avoiding the pitfalls
were comparing to a rugby scrum. “I want your twice in the first four (a minuscule engine
genuine opinion on how you would break it down races, in Saudi Arabia part failing, a botched
defensively,” offensive line czar Jeff Stoutland said to and Azerbaijan, and tire strategy, etc.) that
him. “Or if there’s anything you’d add to the attack.” he had a fifth-place usually befall even the
Gray studied film of the Tush Push, evaluating finish in Singapore, best at least a couple
every player on both sides of the ball, looking at things a track that has always of times per season.
like presnap alignments and body positions, in every given him problems. His dominance
frame of every play. With the Eagles he noticed an Otherwise, comes at a time when
organizational alignment, a collective push to brain- Verstappen was his sport continues
storm and innovate and embrace daring in a copycat uncatchable, reeling to enjoy a surge in
league. He told the locker room what is now clear to off a record 10-race popularity in the
the rest of the NFL. Action will always beat reaction. winning streak and U.S., thanks in part
The only way to defend this concoction would be for sealing the title with to Netflix’s Formula 1:
defensive players to link—but that’s unheard of in the six to spare. Wrapping Drive to Survive series.
MARK THOMPSON/GE T T Y IMAGES

NFL. “Guys, you cannot stop organized mass,” Gray up the title didn’t stop There are those,
said. “This is going to be unstoppable.” the parade of wins. naturally, who argue
As one of the most respected offensive line coaches Despite having nothing that Verstappen’s
in NFL history, Scarnecchia watched the Tush Push to race for except winning ways are
overwhelm pro football after he retired from the pride and prize money, making F1 boring.
Patriots in 2020 and wondered about the rugby ties. the Red Bull driver won But maybe this is an
He also knew what every football player was taught his next four Grands opportunity for Netflix
Prix after clinching. to commission a
The season was sequel: Formula 1: The
73
a perfect storm for Race to Be No. 2.
2 3
for
2 3
at one of their first practices: get leverage. Blockers
are taught to drop their bodies so their pads are lower
than their opponent’s shoulders, to drive defenders
backward and upward. “Hit and lift” is the preferred
technique. Low man wins. “And, usually, the process
of inertia takes over,” Scarnecchia says.
Gray is intentionally evasive about the specific tech-
niques he taught the Eagles. But don’t discount their
impact on making Hurts the new king of quarterback
sneaks. “There’s things that were discussed, little
things; all remain behind closed doors,” Gray says.
It all leads Scarnecchia to ask: “Did the Eagles invent
the best way possible to run a quarterback sneak?”
T H E E A G L E S ’ A L L- P R O center, Ja son Kelce,
recently mentioned Gray’s visit on his podcast—some
“Scottish guy” and his “organized mass.” All centers,
whether currently employed or retired, watch the Tush
Push with mixed emotions. They wince at the pain
Kelce must feel at the bottom of all that humanity. And
“GU YS, YOU CA NNOT STOP ORGA NIZED MA SS,”
THE EAGLES’ RUGBY EXPERT SA ID.
“THIS IS GOING TO BE UNSTOPPABLE.”
they marvel at Philly’s ability to evolve the most basic
of football plays. Like Robbie Tobeck, a 13-year veteran
of Atlanta and Seattle who retired in 2007. He played
only one season after the push rule change, never
saw a quarterback squat for anything and still was
involved in various attempts to innovate the sneak.
In other words, the Eagles weren’t the first to
scour for another way. They were, instead, the best
at figuring one out. And the purists who describe
a simple push of a tush as an abomination, Tobeck
argues, miss the point. Other teams have adopted
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
their own versions of the play without the same
rate of success. Some of those imitators have wide-
WINTER 2023
bodied quarterbacks. Some have elite runners at the
position. Some have elite offensive lines. But none
are as ideally tailored for the play as Philadelphia.
A combination of factors separate the Brotherly
Shove from the knockoffs: the tush being pushed
(“Brady couldn’t squat 600 pounds,” Scarnecchia says),
a center among the NFL’s smartest and most durable,
and the bulk lined up next to him on both sides. (The
Eagles’ O-line starters—Kelce, Landon Dickerson,
Lane Johnson, Cam Jurgens and Jordan Mailata
average 324 pounds.) Tobeck argues this team would
sneak effectively even without the push.
Conviction matters, too. Like in Week 7 when the
Eagles called for a Tush Push on fourth-and-1 at their
own 26-yard-line, an unthinkable decision even two
seasons ago—and it worked. The conversion, in that
and similar situations, becomes ancillary, because
the dynamic of power demonstrated, force applied
and wills drained on opposing sidelines, changes
games, seasons and legacies, often by message alone.
Dan Quinn, the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator,
is speaking late one night in early November, three
days after Dallas lost one of the wildest games of the
season to the Eagles. Hurts had tied the game with
a push-plunge, his seventh rushing touchdown of
the year—and sixth with two teammates at his back.
Quinn is busy trying to solve an impossible riddle.
He understands Gray’s notion that the Eagles cannot
really be countered without rule tweaks. That won’t
stop him. The Eagles, he says, present a “gigantic”
left side of their offensive line. Does that make the
right side more vulnerable? His instinct tells him no.
But perhaps there’s a combination to uncover, a way
to win the shoulder battle and simultaneously defend
the higher plane. He notes that a package of game
film is currently somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean,
en route to his own rugby consultant. “I’m anxiously
waiting to hear back,” he says.
Teams have tried placing their best players at the
center of the pileup; Quinn attempted that primarily
with 265-pound defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence
and with 245-pound edge rusher Micah Parsons. He
74
 also sent defenders around the line, looping toward CAITLIN CLARK AND ANGEL REESE
the QB, or leaping over O-linemen, intent on punching
at the ball as they descended. Since Hurts generally
is shoved into the A gap to his left, Quinn’s jumpers TRASH TALK
went over the left guard. But none could land a punch.
“They really get off the ball,” he says of the Eagles. “We
OF CHAMPIONS
may have to link off the snap. That’s really the only
way. And it’s way more challenging than it sounds.”
Solving the riddle of the Tush Push could require
mind-boggling defensive creativity. Like using
offensive linemen on defense, since they’re used TO THOSE WHO paid enemy and an opponent.
to blocking techniques and could apply them in attention to women’s One you despise all day;
reverse. Gray, the Eagles’ rugby expert, says there’s basketball for the first the other, you loathe
another possibility. The same techniques the Eagles time in March: It is never from buzzer to buzzer.
use to make the Tush Push unstoppable could be like this, but it is also When Reese looked

BY
MICHAEL ROSENBERG
deployed by the defensive linemen across from them. always like this. at Clark and pointed
Most in the NFL believe the Tush Push has an There has never been to her finger that
expiration date, perhaps after this season. League a player like Iowa’s would wear an LSU
officials are expected to discuss the play in the off- Caitlin Clark, who has championship ring, that
season, after heavy debate last spring failed to reach a seemingly endless was not an insult. It was
array of ways to get a a compliment. Reese,
bucket. But the feisty as relentless on the
hypercompetitiveness boards as Clark is on
that marked LSU’s the perimeter, was fired
defeat of Iowa in the up that her team had
NCAA title game? That’s risen to the challenge.
basketball. If you didn’t Afterward, Clark did not
know women talked sound upset that Reese
trash just like the men, celebrated—just that
you literally haven’t she had reason to do so.
been paying attention. They speak a common
For all the bloviating language, baller to
this spring about Clark baller, and the respect
and LSU’s Angel Reese was implicit, though
and trash talk and they voiced it, anyway.
respect, the irony was Clark was the country’s
that Clark and Reese did best player, a cultural
not have to say a word. phenomenon. Reese
PLAYING A HAUNCH They understood that was the rare thing Clark
there is a difference wants to be but isn’t:
When Sirianni (left) got the Philly job, the QB
in place was perfect for a play that had been in in sports between an a national champion.
the back of his mind for more than a decade.

definitive conclusions. On-field officials have been

tasked with watching for illegal formations, cut
BEN SOLOMON/NCA A PHOTOS/GE T T Y IMAGES
F R O M L E F T: M I T C H E L L L E F F/ G E T T Y I M A G E S ;

blocks and spearing within all variations.

Experts like Scarnecchia expect the NFL to return
to a pre–Bush Push universe, outlawing the shove.
That change won’t eliminate the Eagles’ blocking
techniques. “Personally, Scarnecchia says, “I’d just
let it go, let them continue, until people figure it out.”
Gray hears this in Scotland and laughs a satisfying
laugh. If the shove becomes illegal, “I guarantee the
Eagles are going to come up with something else.”

75
 2 3
for
2 3

BIG CROWDS
PACKING
THEM IN

BY MARK BECHTEL
 FANS IN NEBRASK A stadium” thing is environment do? Wait the only women’s team
love to fill Memorial kind of a myth. The for the volleyball team to venture onto the
Stadium in Lincoln to football program has to make its Memorial gridiron. Six weeks
cheer on a winner. Given a 396-game sellout debut. On Aug. 30, later, Iowa’s hoops
the state of the football streak, but that counts Nebraska—which was team held an exhibition
program, though, tickets sold. Last year’s ranked No. 4 in the against DePaul at
STE VEN BR ANSCOMBE/GE T T Y IMAGES

Huskers backers have game against Wisconsin country—drew 92,003 Kinnick Stadium that
had to settle for just had 46,613 fans, a far fans for its win over drew 55,646 fans. Said
filling Memorial Stadium. cry from the announced Omaha. The mark is Caitlin Clark, who had
Nebraska hasn’t made crowd of 86,068. widely accepted as a triple double for the
an appearance in the So what does a the largest confirmed Hawkeyes, “The amount
season-ending top 25 Huskers fan looking crowd ever to see a of people screaming for
since 2012. And even to back a dominant women’s sporting event. us kind of takes your
the whole “filling the program in a raucous The Huskers weren’t breath away.”
 2 3
for
2 3

NOVAK DJOKOVIC

THE
GREATEST BY
L. JON WERTHEIM
PHOTOGRAPH BY
ERICK W. RASCO

SOR RY, ROGER A ND

R A FA. IN 2023 ,
NOVA K DJOKOVIC
SETTLED TENNIS’S
MOST HEATED
DEBATE—WHO’S THE
GR EATEST?—ONCE
A ND FOR A LL
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

WINTER 2023

78
Let us gather to celebrate, not to mourn. But here lies the
men’s tennis GOAT debate. Oh, it was a hell of a run, and
what fun it generated. This was a spirited discussion that
crossed borders and eras, at once unifying and cleaving a
sport’s fan base. It took a sinuous path, following the zigs
and zags of on-court results. It asked us all to contemplate
the essential—and extraneous—ingredients of sports
greatness. But now it has come to its eternal resting place.
May its memory be a blessing. Cue the organ music.

2 3
for
2 3
While there is no precise, official date of birth,
records reveal that the GOAT debate took hold in
late 2011. At that point, it was already clear that
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were not simply gen-
erational talents but historically great talents. Then
came a third party, a young Serb, Novak Djokovic,
who turned the Federer-Nadal rivalry into a tri-valry.
For the next decade-plus, the three stood atop the
sport, kings but also gatekeepers who prevented all
pretenders from entering their sacred space.
It was Federer who was the first to reach 20 majors,
elegance and success at Wimbledon, the sport’s cathedral.
No, wait, Nadal was the GOAT on account of his
persistence and, especially, his dominance at the
French Open, where he won 14 titles in 18 years.
Hold on, the GOAT distinction belonged to Djokovic,
whose tennis gifts may not have been obvious to the
naked eye, but whose true superpower, mental fortitude,
inoculated him from pressure and manifested in his
winning head-to-head records against his two rivals:
27–23 against Federer, 30–29 against Nadal.
On it went. But just as even the most thrilling tennis
E R I C K W. R A S C O

an unbreakable mark—or so we thought—that gave rallies eventually end, the GOAT debate peacefully
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

him the early lead in the GOAT derby. But then Nadal concluded in 2023—game, set, match. And for that,
caught him. And then Djokovic did as well. At one we can blame (which is to say, credit) Djokovic.
WINTER 2023

point all three were tied in majors 20-20-20.

Fans weighed in—oh, did they weigh in.
80
Federer was the clear GOAT, with his grace and

First, some context: Federer retired in the fall
of 2022 with an even 20 majors. Nadal, now 37, is
currently on the precipice of retirement as well. He
has not played in nearly a year due to injuries and
may never play again, obviating any chance of add-
ing to his haul of 22 majors. Djokovic, by contrast,
turned 36—once thought to be doddering by tennis’s
actuarial tables—but in ’23, he may well have turned
in the finest year of his career, coming within a match
(a game, really) of winning a Grand Slam.
His gilded campaign started in Australia, where
a year before he’d been held in detention and then
deported due to his COVID-19 vaccination status (or
lack thereof). After batting aside that controversy (of
81
NOVAK
DJOKOVIC
BACK TO BUSINESS
In 2022, Djokovic was detained and deported
from Australia. This year, he reasserted his
dominance, taking his 10th Australian Open.
his own making), he batted aside seven opponents
and won the Australian Open for a record-10th time.
Though Nadal was absent from the field at the
French Open, Djokovic confronted another Spanish
nemesis, 20-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, an ascending
star closer in age to Djokovic’s kids than to Djokovic
himself. But Djokovic didn’t just beat Alcaraz; he
dominated him physically. In a fierce semifinal match
that lived up to its considerable advance billing,
Djokovic delivered enough punishing rallies—“body
blows,” he later called them—to leave the kid cramp-
ing and barely able to complete the match.
As Djokovic put it: “The positive thing about my
 2 3
for
2 3

game—and I’ve learned a lot about my game—is that COCO GAUFF

RIGHT
as time goes on and the more matches you play, the
more you learn about what do you need to do differ-
ently in order not to get into the black hole.”
The victory secured him his 23rd major, the all-time

ON TIME
men’s record. A month later at Wimbledon, Djokovic
won six matches to reach the final for the ninth time.
There he met Alcaraz again, and this time youth beat
experience. The kid exacted revenge, riding his strong
serve to win a five-set instaclassic 1–6, 7–6 (8–6), 6–1,
3–6, 6–4, thwarting Djokovic’s Grand Slam ambitions.
Though this defeat stung—“very, very, disappoint-
ing, I cannot lie,” he said—it energized Djokovic. A
BY L. JON WERTHEIM
month later, in Cincinnati, it was his turn to beat
Alcaraz, in likely the best ATP Tour match of 2023.
It doubled as an amuse-bouche for the U.S. Open. COCO GAUFF was meh season. The
In New York, Alcaraz lost in the semis, but Djokovic all of 19 years old. sixth seed, she had
did Djokovic things, marrying his offense with his And though already won her first five
defense, elevating his tennis when it mattered most to a bona fide matches, triggering
win the final in straight sets and take his 24th major. star—offering optimism. And
It was as good a time as any to take stock of his a harmonious she was leading
excellence. The U.S. Open was the 72nd major of his marriage of power, in her semifinal
career. He made a final for the 36th time and won speed, athleticism, against No. 10 seed
for the 24th, tying him with Margaret Court for the strategy and Karolína Muchová
most all time. That is, he has made the final in half poise—it would not when she looked
the majors he’s played and taken the title in one of have been hard up and saw a
every three. (Even the great Serena won “only” 23 of for her to hear disruption in
81.) He has won each of the four Grand Slam events the salon getting the stands.
at least three times, and half of his major victories restless, awaiting a A tennis player
have come since he turned 30. breakthrough once like Gauff prepares
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

And, as he has rewritten tennis records, he has deemed inevitable. for all sorts of
also reauthored his reputation. So often described as As she took the potential scenarios:
WINTER 2023

polarizing, he has won over many. Fans who once saw court, she was an opponent playing
rough edges, compared to Federer and Nadal, now see barely two months at top form; rain;
a devoted father (during off days at the French Open, past Wimbledon, her forehand
he took his kids hiking). where she flamed deserting her, as
They see a player whose out in the first had happened in the
CLAY TO WIN pet cause is elevating round. And working past. But nobody
prize money and work- with a new coach, would have planned
Djokovic won his third French Open this
year—at the time his 23rd major title— ing conditions for lower- Brad Gilbert, whose for this one. When
while also showing a softer side to fans. ranked players. They sterling reputation she asked what
see an unusually acces- preceded him but was going on, she
F R O M L E F T: F R E Y/ T P N / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; E R I C K W. R A S C O

sible celebrit y. They whose addition to learned that, in the

see a competitor whose her team—causing upper recesses
durability and flexibility her parents to of the stadium, a
and sheer ability place take a backseat— climate change
him among the greatest added pressure. activist had glued
living athletes, sport She was playing his feet to the
be damned. in the U.S. Open, ground, causing
They see someone her “home major” a delay.
who didn’t just win the and last chance to How do you
GOAT debate. He put it salvage what, until maintain your
82
out to pasture. then, had been a momentum? How
 COCO

GAUFF

do you shoo away

worries that the
break helped your
opponent? But
Gauff did. She held
her poise and won.
Later, she was
asked about the delay.
“I believe in climate
change,” she replied.
“Moments like this
are history-defining.
K T H R O I wasn’t pissed at
A
the protesters. I

U
E
always speak about

B R

G H
2 3
preaching what you
2 3 believe in. It was

R
O
done in a peaceful

A
F
T E way, so I can’t get
H E Y
too mad at it. . . . I
was hoping it wasn’t
in my match, but it
is what it is. If that’s
what they felt they
needed to do to get
their voices heard, I
can’t really get
upset at it.”
In that unscripted
moment, Gauff
revealed more
about herself than
any stroke could
have. By the final,
it seemed almost
scripted that she
would win her first
major singles title.
And Gauff did just
that, taking down
Aryna Sabalenka,
who was soon to be
No. 1 in the world
rankings. Though,
again, it would take
a reset, overcoming
a lousy first set and
then upping her level.
At once, Gauff broke
through and conveyed
an unmistakable
sense that she was
just warming up.
2 3
for
2 3

IT WAS NO MISTAKE WHEN

THIS 20-YEAR-OLD PHENOM
WON HER FIRST-
EVER LPGA EVENT.
SHE HAS CONTINUED ALL YEAR
TO PROVE SHE BELONGS
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

WINTER 2023
 prospect to full-fledged phenom, from pushing her
own bag at collegiate competitions to having her
ROSE ZHANG clubs carried by a veteran caddie at courses like

A BLOOMING
Baltusrol, Pebble Beach and the Kuala Lumpur Golf
and Country Club. She had lined up several sponsor
exemptions for LPGA tournaments, but they were no
longer needed thanks to her new status. Her previ-
ous collegiate name, image and likeness contracts

STAR
were rewritten as years-long endorsement deals.
She landed on Time’s Next 100 list and the cover
of Golf Digest, suddenly one of the highest-profile
names in the sport.
If her amateur career and smashing pro debut are
any indication, Zhang could be one of the best players
in the world for a long time. In her rookie summer
she won once, finished in the top 10 of three of the
BY
four majors she played and qualified for the U.S.
GABRIELLE Solheim Cup team. More victories seem assured,
HERZIG especially as Zhang adjusts to the whirlwind pace
of life as a professional athlete on tour. It’s been an
ongoing effort.
Building an inner circle, navigating media obliga-
tions, managing tighter windows for practice: The
first five months of Zhang’s professional life haven’t
been about just playing solid golf, but also learning
and adapting. At the U.S. Women’s Open in July, she
described her schedule as “overbearing.”
Even settling on someone to carry her clubs is
its own challenge: “They say it’s harder to find a

FIRST TRY’S THE CHARM

Following her amateur victory at Augusta (left),
Zhang became the first player to win her LPGA
FOURTEEN DAYS. debut (below) since Beverly Hanson in 1951.
On Monday, May 22, 2023, Rose Zhang became
the first female golfer to win back-to-back NCAA
F R O M L E F T: R O B S C H U M A C H E R / U S A T O D AY S P O R T S ; E L S A / G E T T Y I M A G E S

Division I individual championships. It marked her

12th collegiate title for Stanford—a program record,
one more than a distinguished fellow alum who
goes by Tiger.
Two days later Zhang turned 20. Two days after
that, on May 26, she turned professional.
On June 1, she teed it up in her pro debut. On
June 4, she raised a trophy as an LPGA champion.
“It all happened in a blur,” says the Arcadia, Calif.,
native five months after she bagged the Mizuho
Americas Open in Jersey City and immediately
earned full Tour status for two years. “I would have
never planned this for myself. I expected to be play-
ing LPGA qualifying school at this moment.”
85
Instead, Zhang went straight from intriguing
2 3
for
2 3

caddie than a boyfriend,” she says. (So far, she’s

had two as a pro.)
What Zhang is counting on to get her through,
though, is what got her into this position in the
first place.
She trusts her rigorous process. Whether it was at
the crack of dawn or late into the evening, she was
often the first to arrive at Stanford’s state-of-the-art
practice facility and the last to leave.
“The running joke on the team was that we weren’t
sure if she just slept in the building. She was always
there,” says Stanford golf coach Anne Walker. Zhang
may keep popping up at odd hours, as she is return-
ing to Palo Alto this winter to continue classes toward
her communications degree.
Zhang’s effortlessly straight tee shots and magical
short game—fine-tuned in those off-hour practice
sessions—have made her a world-class player. But
she also possesses the required fortitude between
her ears that could make her transcendent.
“I’m pretty calm and composed, but I realized I
definitely have a fighting spirit on the golf course,”
she says. “Winners and second-place finishers aren’t
much different in terms of game. It all comes down
to how you play the course and who can handle the
pressure the best.”
Zhang has already displayed an ability to grind
even when her game isn’t totally there. JON RAHM

EYES ON
During the final round of the Augusta National
Women’s Amateur in April, shortly before she
turned pro, Zhang was visibly struggling with her
swing, and a five-shot lead was slipping away. So on

THE PRIZE
Amen Corner’s iconic par-5 13th, Zhang changed her
grip, moving her right hand ever so slightly under-
neath the club, and immediately saw an improvement
in her ball striking. The idea of making such a sen-
sitive and high-stakes adjustment mid-tournament
would give most golfers the shivers, but Zhang did
it with confidence and control on one of the world’s
most famous courses. She went on to win in a two-
BY JOHN SCHWARB
hole playoff.
“Of her 12 collegiate wins, she probably won nine
of them with her B game. And she probably won a JON RAHM’S to simply be the
handful of them with her C game,” says Walker. accomplishments best player.
“She would never think, It’s just not my week. She’d this year made him Scottie Scheffler
just keep grinding.” one of the world’s will end the year
Zhang entered into a new spotlight when she most visible golfers, as the world No. 1,
hoisted her first LPGA trophy in New Jersey this giving him the but Rahm turned
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

summer. Then she established herself over a stretch platform to weigh in the best season,
of 14 LPGA starts across three continents. The diz- into the political winning four times
WINTER 2023

zying transition and swarm of attention might have drama that engulfed on the PGA Tour,
created unforeseen obstacles. But the inner force that the sport again in including his second
86
propelled Zhang to stardom never wavered. 2023. He preferred major title, at the
 Masters. In a battle Rahm’s silence a Ryder Cup victory
O L F ER
of PGA-vs.–LIV Golf contrasted starkly (right). Among his G
stars over the final with Tour loyalist four Tour wins was
two rounds at Augusta Rory McIlroy, who a two-shot triumph 2 3

National, Rahm in 2023 frequently at Riviera, one of the OF THE

2 3
played alongside used his platform to few events left that
Brooks Koepka in the criticize the Saudi- remain prestigious and
Y
last pairing. Over those backed circuit, just uncompromised in the E A R
36 holes, he turned a as he did in ’22. (“If LIV Golf era.
two-stroke deficit into LIV Golf was the last Need more evidence
a four-stroke win. place to play on Earth, of Rahm’s tunnel
What could have I would retire,” he said vision? He gave up his
been a classic good- in July.) He grudgingly spot in the upcoming
vs.-evil story line, made peace only simulator golf league,
F R O M T O P : E R I C K W. R A S C O ; N A O M I B A K E R / G E T T Y I M A G E S

with the Spaniard’s after the “framework founded by McIlroy

win vindicating the agreement” was and Tiger Woods,
PGA, was undercut struck during the walking away from
by the fact that the summer between camaraderie and easy
guy wearing the green the rival factions. cash. “It would require
jacket refused to (“Ultimately this is a level of commitment
provide any headlines. going to be good.”) that I can’t offer,”
“I never got into the Rahm’s choice was he said.
feud,” Rahm said at to not engage, totally His focus for 2024
the PGA Championship focusing on chasing remains singular, while
in May. “To me, it’s like legacy trophies. He the sport continues to
nothing changed.” helped lead Europe to shift all around him.
S O

T Y

FOND
FAREWELL
THE SPORTS WORLD SAID
GOODBYE TO SEVERAL
LUMINARIES—AND SI COVER
SUBJECTS—IN 2023

VIDA BLUE JIM BROWN

May 31, 1971 December 12, 1983

DICK BUTKUS WALTER DAVIS CONRAD DOBLER DICK GROAT

September 21, 1970 February 20, 1978 July 25, 1977 August 8, 1960

H E I N Z K L U E T M E I E R ( K A P P, W H I T E ) ; J O H N G . Z I M M E R M A N ( G R O AT, M C C A R V E R ) ; R I C H C L A R K S O N
(K NIGH T ); RICH A RD M A CK S ON (BRO W N); M A NN Y MIL L A N (DOBL ER); K EN RE G A N (BL UE )

N E I L L E I F E R ( B U T K U S , H O WA R D , H U L L , R E E D ) ; J A M E S D R A K E ( D AV I S , R O B I N S O N ) ;
FRANK HOWARD BOBBY HULL JOE K APP BOBBY KNIGHT
May 25, 1964 February 12, 1968 July 20, 1970 January 26, 1981
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

WINTER 2023

TIM M C CARVER WILLIS REED BROOKS ROBINSON CHARLES WHITE

September 4, 1967 February 8, 1971 October 20, 1969 October 2, 1978
SERVING

TO COCO
2023 BREAKTHROUGH
OF THE YEAR

Congratulations to Coco Gauff on another well-deserved

title. BARILLA® is proud to serve Coco before every
match and cheer her on as she continues to achieve
greatness on and off court.
A S I G N O F LOV E
It’s go time.

Natural Diamond
Engagement Ring

A DIAMOND IS FOREVER