Just when I start to doubt SI, I get an issue like today's, with the incredible feature on Tim Lincecum by Tom Verducci, and my faith is restored.
Oh, and if it weren't for SI, no one would ever know about this:
I don't think SI's problem is the Internet. No one should be reading Sports Illustrated for breaking news. It's that the market is so saturated that their writers just don't get the access they used to. Go to the SI Vault and read all the features on Clay/Ali from the 60s and 70s. You'll never see a writer get that close to any athlete of that magnitude again.
And if you miss Rick Reilly, you have two options:
1) Read him at ESPN.com
2) Just flip through some old SI issues, because he's been writing the same ****ing column since he got on the back page.