Sports Illustrated had a “dark week” – one of four each year in which the magazine does not publish a regular issue – following the United States’ 2015 Women’s World Cup victory, but the buzz surrounding the team has been so huge that the country’s most recognizable sports magazine is still putting the U.S. women on the cover – on 25 different covers, to be exact.
This week, SI will roll out covers with each of the 23 U.S. players alone on the front, plus U.S. coach Jill Ellis. Magazine subscribers will get a special team photo on their covers. This comes in addition to the digital-only cover (for the non-existent issue) which SI made available for purchase last week. Here’s a quick look at all 25 covers:
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
“On Tuesday, July 7, we alighted on the idea of one cover for each of the 23, plus a 24th for the coach,” said Chris Stone, Sports Illustrated managing editor. “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.”
Stone went on to call it “the first shoot of its kind in SI history.” Players posed for photos on Friday both before and after their historic ticker-tape victory parade in New York City. Friday marked the first time a women’s sports team received a ticker-tape parade in New York.
Click here to view each cover.
