No Curse Here

Next week, Sports Illustrated will print its annual Swimsuit issue. Don’t be surprised if the cover is Bill Cowher in a two-piece.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are the cover boys again this week after winning Super Bowl XL. It was the team’s fourth appearance on the cover in five issues and fifth of 2006 if you count the Super Bowl commemorative edition.

In recent years, Sports Illustrated has gone to regional issues during certain season’s playoffs so some parts of the country did not see the Steelers cover. However, two appearances were exclusive and one even upstaged Kobe Bryant’s historic 81 point performance.

While Seattle also made two of the covers during this stretch, the Steelers did avoid the infamous SI cover curse by taking out the Colts in the AFC divisional playoffs.

It may seem like a stupid myth, but in 2002, SI did their own research and found out that 37 percent of the time a person or team is on the cover, some kind of bad luck is strikes them within two weeks of the appearance.

After five appearances alone this year, one can only wonder what kind of misfortune the Sports Illustrated gods might bestow on the Steelers next season.