Jeff Pearlman: Sports Illustrated has become ‘an empty vessel for selling sh*t to idiots’

On Friday, several of Sports Illustrated’s best and brightest writers, or what remains of them, announced they’d been laid off.

Jeff Pearlman, who made his bones as a journalist for SI when it was one of the world’s most prominent sports magazines, had his heart broken all over again.

Among those who said on social media that they’d been laid off were Stephanie Apstein, Tyler Lauletta, Kyle Koster, and Mike McDaniel. Meanwhile, Front Office Sports reported that several longtime writers — including Greg Bishop and Michael Rosenberg — were laid off as part of the latest round of cuts at SI.

This is, of course, just the latest in a long series of cuts and reorganizations for the once-proud sports media brand that now trades on its reputation to create merchandise, resorts, and mostly mediocre editorial content, sometimes aided by AI.

“As a guy who wrote for Sports Illustrated for a long time and a guy who loves Sports Illustrated, like loves, loves, loves… this stuff carves me up,” Pearlman said in a TikTok video. “And it’s one thing that they get rid of writers, they lay people off. What I hate the most is that these corporate douchebags who have taken over the magazine view it just as a name now.

“That’s all Sports Illustrated is. It’s a name. It’s something to put on cruise ships. It’s something to put on clubs. It’s something to put on popcorn. Literally, there’s a Sports Illustrated popcorn. It’s something to put on whatever you can shove that thing on. That’s what it is now. Sports Illustrated has become nothing more than a way to attract people… It’s just so disturbing.”

@jeffpearlmanauthor Today’s Sports Illustrated news absolutely breaks my heart. (F@@k corporate media) #sportsillustrated #sportsmedia #sportsjournalism #booktok #writertok ♬ original sound – Jeff Pearlman

Pearlman then ran down the who’s-who list of prominent sports writers who once graced the magazine’s pages.

“I do want to remind people, because I think it’s important, and I know this makes me a dinosaur,” he continued. “To me, Sports Illustrated is Gary Smith, it’s Rick Reilly, it’s Grant Wahl, it’s Ron Fimrite, it’s Frank Deford, Dan Jenkins, Jon Wertheim, Phil Taylor. It’s the great, great, great writing and reporting where once upon a time they put money and pride into bringing you the absolute best in sports, where… every Tuesday or Wednesday, you’d open your mailbox and there would be this bible every week of what’s going on in sports.”

Pearlman, who left SI in 2002, says he could see the writing on the wall even back then.

“I started knowing SI was in trouble, I would say, for me, a couple of things,” Pearlman said. “Number one, when they f*cked up adjusting to the internet. Big time screw-up. Number two, when they laid off all of their photographers, considering it’s literally Sports Illustrated. Number three, when they just decided to destroy their library. Like, literally take the SI library, which was awesome, and just give it away.

“And now here we sit. The last of their name writers gone. Now, basically an empty vessel for selling sh*t to idiots and for getting people to gamble away their money on sports. It sucks. It’s a dark day in sports.”