THE MAGAZINE EDITOR'S BLOG: STANDING BEHIND THE MISSOURI TIGERS COVER

In relative terms, editing a national sports magazine is easy. It's not like running for president or rustling cattle or ruining the international banking system or otherwise putting oneself in harm's way. In subjective terms, though, it's not easy making the big calls, like deciding who should be on our cover. Consider our current issue. Inside you'll find a really smart package reported and written by senior writers Dave Fleming, Seth Wickersham and Eddie Matz explaining why no one in the NFL can tackle anymore. My colleagues and I thought long and hard about making that story our cover image, especially after seeing the photo treatment planned by creative director Siung Tjia (a version of which is inside).

In the end, though, we gambled and went with a cover image connected to another story, "Missing In Action." This piece explains how one college QB can be in the running for a Heisman but not necessarily be a top NFL prospect, while another passer might not even start in college but could easily end up running an NFL team. We used Mizzou's two QB Chases (Daniel and Patton) to illustrate the story, which was written by Wickersham (a Mizzou journalism grad). We had a great picture of the two signal-callers, shot by Olugbenro Ogunsemore, and we went with it, knowing that most of our subscribers would get their issue of The Magazine between Thursday and Saturday of last week. That is, after Mizzou beat Nebraska but before the Tigers faced Oklahoma State. Our feeling was that the Tigers stood a pretty good chance of beating the Cowboys, and the cover would be relevant even if they lost because the piece wasn't about how good the Tigers are but rather how interesting their QBs are.

Now I don't know.

Mizzou lost, of course, and I can't help wondering if subscribers won't look at their issue sitting on a coffee table or under a bathroom sink and think we got it wrong, that somehow we put the two Tigers on our cover because we were expecting them to remain undefeated. Seth's excellent story still holds up well—and the Tigers are by no means out of the running for a shot at the national title—but a part of me wishes that we had played it safe and chosen the tackling cover. Then again, sports is about taking chances, and no one really gets hurt when a cover doesn't work out perfectly. In any event, that's what's on my mind these days (outside of a certain Arizona football team sitting atop the NFC West). I'm curious to hear what ETM.com readers would have done.

Now on to my list of THE 27 BEST SPORTS IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW, ACCORDING TO ME. It's a bonanza of a ranking, though much less important than another list I keep: STRANGEST SPORTS-RELATED SUPERSTITIONS (Top 3: It's good luck to shave before riding a bull; always spit on your bait before casting; never say "shutout" in a locker room before a hockey game). Anyway, here's this week's update, for Jenny Craig:

THE 27 BEST SPORTS IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW, ACCORDING TO ME:

1. NFL¹
2. College football (BCS)
3. MLB (National League)
4. NHL²
5. High school football (Wyoming)
6. Gymnastics³
7. NASCAR (Sprint Cup)
8. Touch football⁴
9. MLB (American League)⁵
10. Soccer
11. Tennis (women's)
12. Wheelchair badminton
13. Tennis (men's)
14. Corn husking⁶
15. Touch football
16. NBA
17. Mixed Martial Arts
18. Tennis (men's)
19. Military Service Rifle⁷
20. Golf (PGA)
21. Surfing⁸
22. Boxing
23. Skier X
24. Bowling
25. Yoga
26. Golf (LPGA)
27. WNBA

1. Did I mention the Cardinals have a two-game lead over the 49ers?

2. Hey, the Blues don't suck! [Yet.]

3. Shawn Johnson dropped by he office a couple of days back. And you know the rules: Come visit us at work, get your sport on my list.

4. NYC's Fourth Down League just keeps getting better and better athletes. And I keep getting older and older.

5. Still. Loving. The. Rays. Especially since they're schooling the Red Sox.

6. You can compete in this. Who knew?

7. Because guns don't kill people—people who don't use guns solely for sport kill people.

8. How good is Kelly Slater? Just asking.

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