A First For Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated did something this week that they’ve never done before.

I covered the Jets big playoff win over the Patriots in Foxboro and made a photo of QB Tom Brady getting sacked and losing the ball. The image ran on the cover, my ninth for SI (10th if you count the Auburn commemorative in 2005).

20110124_SI_Jets_Brady_sack_cover_sm

@2shear on Twitter said that it looks like Brady is watching someone steal his car.

Since there were four playoff games, it had already been decided there would be two regional covers with different teams on each. SI’s director of photography wanted my photo to be seen in all copies of the magazine, so they published the full-frame horizontal version as a Leading Off in the other edition (John Biever’s photo of Chicago QB Jay Cutler is on the cover).

20110124_SI_Jets_Brady_sack_leading_off_sm (Nikon D3, 200-400 at 360mm, 1/800, f/4, ISO 4000)

It’s the first time that a photo has been published as both a cover and a Leading Off in different versions of the same week’s issue.

I also covered last week’s Packers – Eagles playoff game and had a two-page photo of Philly LB Ernie Sims trying to bring down FB Quinn Johnson.

20110117_SI_Packers_Eagles_leading_off_sm (Nikon D3, 600mm, 1/1000, f/4, ISO 3200)

I suppose I should blog about Sports Illustrated’s Leading Off more often.