Sports Illustrated is doing a terrific and unprecedented thing with their magazine this week. They are honoring the US Women’s National Team with the ultimate team honor by giving each player as well as manager Jill Ellis with their very own cover. This, along with a team cover, is the most SI covers devoted to a single issue (25).
Sports Illustrated decided to go with this plan because they wanted to honor them as a team and each one brought their own influence to winning the World Cup. As Managing Editor of Sports Illustrated Chris Stone explains,
“The USWNT has plenty of recognizable, even famous names, but we couldn’t think of a group so thoroughly identified with a team as this one. We could go two ways: a team shot, which seemed a little conventional here, or something different and fresh: honoring not just one or two players, but all 23 of them with their own cover.”
A historic cover for a historic team. SI’s 25 covers honoring @ussoccer_wnt‘s World Cup champs http://t.co/VbLjDneU1h pic.twitter.com/gaN6Fy2TX2
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) July 13, 2015
Fate helped Sports Illustrated out a little due to the ticker tape parade in New York City last Friday. The issue comes out this week and Sports Illustrated needed to have all 23 players, Ellis and the trophy there to take the pictures and have it ready for the cover. The parade helped alleviate that problem and get each player and Ellis.
This is certainly going to be one for the avid collector and enthusiast of either USWNT, Sports Illustrated or both. At $5 a piece on Sports Illustrated’s website, look to pay $125 for all 25 issue covers. But something tells me it’ll be worth it.
