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Does this mean that the Ravens quarterback will be just another in the long line of faces to grace the cover and then fall victim to it's supposed "jinx?"
The fable is that if you are on the cover of Sports Illustrated, then you will almost immediately have bad luck. Typical stories involve a college football team making the cover as the best team in the country and then get upset in their very next game. An undefeated boxer makes the cover and then gets knocked out in his next fight.
Can Flacco overcome the cover jinx? The good news (?) is that Sports Illustrated is going with two "regional" covers this week. While the eastern half of the country will get issues with Joe raring back to launch a pass, the western part of the USA will see San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick running downfield as he ran all around the Green Bay Packers in their huge NFC Divisional Round playoff win.
This is the second time that Flacco has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The previous time was on the September 19, 2011, and was because of the Ravens 35-7 beatdown they had administered to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the opening game of the season. Unfortunately, the Ravens went out and laid an egg in losing miserably to the Tennessee Titans the following week.
Coincidence? We certainly hope so.
More from the Press Release:
Also appearing on a regional cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated is Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, who led his team to an epic double overtime comeback victory against the favored Denver Broncos and Peyton Manning in last Saturday’s AFC Divisional showdown. This is the 2nd time Flacco has appeared on the cover. He first appeared on the cover on Sept. 19, 2011.
Senior writer Peter King (
@SI_PeterKing) writes that it’s time to make room for Flacco in the upper echelon of NFL quarterbacks. Since entering the NFL in 2008, Flacco at 61-30, is the winningest quarterback in the league and also the only passer in history to win a playoff game in each of his first five seasons. Flacco and the Ravens advance to play in their second straight AFC title game at Gillette Stadium vs. the New England Patriots on Sunday.
Will people finally buy how good this guy is?” asks coach John Harbaugh. “I mean, we love him (PAGE 49).