Who Wants the Inside Story?

Ever been hungry for Kentucky Fried Chicken and gone halfway across town to get it? Ever wanted a Subway Sandwich and searched far and wide for the "closest" SUBWAY– unable to be tempted any other smell or sight?

If so, then you know how I felt when my Sports Illustrated subscription ran out. It felt almost as if I had misplaced my left knee cap – something just wasn't quite right.

Needless to say, I renewed my subscription as soon as possible, and below you will find a list of my favorite features of Sports Illustrated as found in the latest version, dated February 12, 2001.

LEADING OFF.
I always turn first to the three double-page pictures that are displayed after a couple pages of ads. The pictures are always more than classic, and I especially liked the first one here. It is of a "rainbow trout fingering peeks out from the gullet of the northern pike that has just had it for lunch." Classic. Stunning. And it makes me proud because it was taken by a photographer from "Anchorage Daily News." For most people that won't mean much; for me, having an Alaskan picture as the highlight of Leading Off.... More on my hometown pride later..

LETTERS.
I just scan these. Mostly fanatics or local folksy's ‘witching' that their "West Virginian Community College team ain't on your Final Four leest." The occasional laugh line is included.

SI VIEW and SCORECARD.
Both are a combined 20 pages of ads and nonsense that almost never interests me. This issue includes articles such as: "Poetry in Motion – if three noted bards had rendered the sporting scene in verse, it might have gone something like this"; "For Putts Nuts" – an article about golfonline.com; and "Cruel and Unusual, a horrific death calls attention to the ugly world of dogfights." All were informative but not terribly entertaining.

FEATURE ARTICLES.
These articles are the meat and bones of the magazine, and are usually the second priority for me after Leading Off. This week's issue included four main articles:

"The X Factor " – ‘The XFL drew big crowds and boffo ratings on its debut weekend, but can it keep the ball rolling with a mix of babes, bombast, and barely adequate football? By Leigh Montville
– I really liked Leigh's coverage of this new league and all it's frills and chills. Having read a pre-cursor of this article on the Net written also by Leigh, I was looking forward to the full blown version. I think he delivered; although he seemed in the end to conclude with more questions than answers.

"Out-Duking the Devils" by Tim Crothers
– This article was definitely of some interest – and some pain – to me because Duke is my NCAA team. Win or lose, they are my favorite. (Here I must digress for a moment for some very necessary explanation. In case you haven't read my other reviews, I am an Alaskan, born in Alaska in 1975, and I love Alaska. Unfortunately, since Alaska has no NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, or even any NCAA basketball team that has come within a lightyear from The Final Four – I am stuck with rooting for my hometown heroes. Trajan Langdon, Carlos Boozer (both Duke players), Scott Gomez (New Jersey Devils), and a few others – make me fans of their teams. I closely follow their teams on the Net, but I also like to read in depth articles in these magazines on leading stories.)
Back to the Duke article, which actually was about Matt Doherty, the new coach of Duke's nemesis North Carolina. For all you who aren't college basketball fans and haven't heard of what many sports writers call "The Greatest Rivalry in Sports," North Carolina (ranked No. 4 at the time) just recently beat Duke (No. 2 at the time). The article was interesting and encouraging, I'm sure, for North Carolina fans, but I thought it did justice to the topic.

"Butch League" by Tim Layden
– This article is an in-depth look at the story line of the former coach of the University of Miami Hurricanes football team who resigned and took the job as head coach of the NFL Cleveland Browns. All this only recently after saying that he would "NEVER" leave Miami. This article was informative, well-written, and somewhat biased against Butch Davis (although somewhat justifiably so).

"Jury's Out" by S.L. Price and Lester Munson
– Mark Chmura, a former Green Bay Packers tight-end and owner of a championship ring, is tried and found innocent of sexual assault of a minor. As this piquant report highlights, the "jury's still out" on whether Mark can recover from his unpleasant courtroom publicity.

"Birbrained." by Mark Fredrickson
– An uninteresting essay on the woeful leader of a woeful baseball franchise – The Baltimore Orioles. Article may only interest Baltimore fans; although it probably will only be painful to them as well.

INSIDE THE WEEK SPORTS.
After I've spent time reading or criticizing the feature articles, I usually move to the next section which is called "Inside the Week Sports." These pages include inside information (obviously) that I don't usually read in my regular online perusing of cnnsi.com. As illustration of the uniqueness of this kind of coverage (as opposed to covering the winning-est teams or the most popular), I will post the titles of the categories and their essays as follows:

College Basketball.
– how to improve free throw shooting
– Alabama on the rise
-- Driesell still has touch, at Georgia State

The NBA
– His Airness can lift Wizards
-- Knicks have knack for defense
– Nor regrets for Magic's Amaechi

The NHL
– Keenan gets Bruins brewing
– Can Lemieux win goal-scoring race?
– Shopping for goaltenders

Finally, Finally... I turn to the next to the last page. There I find "The Life of Reilly." By Rick Reilly. Really? You ask. Yes, Reilly. I answer. Sometimes, he has an article worth reading. Other times, the ad on the adjacent page is more scintillating. More often than not, I'm finished with Sports Illustrated for the week, and I file it away in my handy dandy Sport Illustrated archive to be looked at again at a later time when I am hungering and thirsting for "The Inside Story."