Sports Illustrated has four regional covers for its 2014 NFL preview issue. Each features a different quarterback duo. The east coast gets Tony Romo and Nick Foles, the midwest gets Jay Cutler and Matthew Stafford, the south gets Matt Ryan and Drew Brees, and the west coast gets Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson. It seems the main theme is “gunslingers in the NFC.” That’s all fine, but what the heck is up with all these pictures? They might as well have photoshopped Beyonce in the background of these covers.

Brees has a goatee, and he and Ryan both look like middle-aged dads. Cutler looks like a bad drawing of Cutler. Romo looks like a confused Brett Favre in a wig. Wilson and Kaepernick look like they were cut out of Expendables 3 at the last minute. Not to mention Wilson’s pants or Kaep’s lack of a shirt. Foles’ mean mug is as intense as Cutler’s attempt at smiling.

Thank Peyton for Stafford. His big head, mop top and goofy grin remain untouched.

RELATED: Fantasy Football 2014: Quarterback Rankings (Or Why I am Doubling Down on Jay Cutler)
RELATED: Jay Cutler Signs 7-Year, $126 Million with the Chicago Bears, with $54 Million Guaranteed
RELATED: Kelly Hall, Matthew Stafford’s Fiancée, Celebrating Her Birthday With Lots of Booze
RELATED: 12 Reasons Why Everyone Hates Colin Kaepernick

Sports Illustrated NFL writer Robert Klemko is facing charges of misdemeanor battery and criminal trespass after an altercation with a cab driver according to CBS Chicago.

Chicago Police say 27-year-old Robert Klemko is charged with misdemeanor battery and criminal trespass after a fight with a cab driver. Police say Klemko got into a verbal altercation with the driver, hit him and took off in his cab around 12:55 a.m. Saturday in the 900 block of Pine Grove.

UPDATE: Peter King just announced that Klemko has been suspended from The MMQB for four weeks.

With the sad news that Kobe Bryant’s season ended prematurely due to a torn rotator cuff, everyone’s trying to put his sterling 19-year career in perspective. It’s the second straight season-ending injury he’s suffered, and Kobe’s played just 41 of the Lakers’ last 117 games

Short of some shocking offseason developments – say, Kevin Love signs with the Lakers and they get the No. 1 pick in the draft and land Jahlil Okafor – Kobe’s career accomplishments aren’t going to change dramatically in the final year of his contract.

On my Yahoo Sports Radio show Sunday, I tried to peg Kobe’s spot among the all-time greats, and settled upon 8th, but that’s excluding LeBron James, who is only 30. A few listeners asked me afterward if I’d put LeBron’s career so far against Kobe’s (either at Kobe at 30, or Kobe right now) and the answer was yes. So I’d peg Kobe Bryant as the 9th greatest player in basketball history.

[Jordan, Magic, Bird, Russell, Chamberlain, Jabbar and Duncan were the top seven, though not in that order.]

The most interesting responses came in regard to my comments on Larry Bird vs. Kobe (hour three here). It’s impossible/silly to try and compare players from different eras, and these two don’t even play the same position!

Both were lethal scorers, legendary trash talkers, and while Bird made those around him better, Kobe was an elite defender for much of his career. Back injuries limited Bird’s career to 13 seasons, but he wasn’t nearly the same player in the last four. How’s this for a stat: Kobe Bryant started 200 playoff games (8,641 minutes) and Bird started just 95 (6,886 minutes).

As always, so many “Ifs” – Bird’s back, Len Bias, Reggie Lewis; for Kobe, if he and Shaq got along, if Colorado didn’t happen – dot this subjective debate. Kobe had a longer career, but barely edges him on the scorecard (both were MVP of the Finals twice, and Bird won three league MVP awards to Kobe’s one). Kobe won five titles, Bird three.

It’s close. How close? Here’s a graphic that probably ends with Kobe behind by one, unless the Lakers make the playoffs next year:

Are a lot of 30-somethings perhaps caught up in the Larry Legend 80’s memories that only seem to improve with time? And, perhaps, is there a backlash toward Kobe because of the way he drove loveable Shaq out of LA and allegedly raped a woman in Eagle, Colorado?

Consider this stat on Bird, and how much the game has changed in less than 30 years: in 1986, the best year of his career (League MVP, Finals MVP, averaged 25.8 points, 9.8 rebounds, 6.8 assists and shot 49/42/89), he made 23 three-pointers in the postseason (18 games). In the 2013 playoffs, when Danny Green blew up against the Heat, he made 55 three-pointers in 21 games.

INTERNAL STRIFE AT SPORTS ILLUSTRATED?

So what the hell is going on at Sports Illustrated? In a stunner last week, SI laid off all six of its staff photographers, and quietly parted ways with two senior writers, Brian Cazeneuve (Olympics) and Thomas Lake (features, longform). Layoffs are always difficult, but four weeks into the year, they’re a brutal way to start 2015.

It’s been a rough six years for the one-time Sports Bible, dating back to the layoffs in 2008 and 2012. This isn’t really anything new to legacy media – layoffs have been gutting the industry for the better part of a decade.

Inside Blitz spoke with several current Sports Illustrated staffers and the consensus was this: “morale is low” and fingers kept getting pointed at Paul Fichtenbaum, who took over the Magazine in 2012. The current picture being painted there is not a rosy one, especially after Fichtenbaum named himself the boss of SI.com after interviewing several internal candidates.

While SI obviously has plenty of talented writers regularly churning out fantastic journalism, the issue seems to be leadership and direction. “There’s no confidence in Paul right now,” another SI staffer said.

RATINGZ

For the eight of you who are ratings obsessed – reminder: TV ratings have an embarrassingly outdated model, so take them extremely lightly – here’s one via Sports TV Ratings:

On Martin Luther King Day, NBA ratings were solid, even for the 2:30 pm game between the Hawks and Pistons on ESPN (830k viewers). ESPN tweaked its afternoon lineup – putting the Grantland basketball show on after the game, and bumping Around the Horn and PTI to ESPN2.

With the NBA lead-in, the Simmons show pulled in a solid 516k viewers (0.2 rating). But it seems lots of people still followed ATH to ESPN2 (597k viewers, 0.3 rating) and PTI as well (731k viewers, 0.3 rating).

ODDS & ENDS

Tough week at the Palm Beach Post – the paper let go its sports editor and also longtime columnist, Greg Stoda … RIP former Star-Ledger NFL columnist Paul Needell … ever wonder how difficult the transition is from print to broadcast? Matt Ginella, who went from Golf Digest and Golf World to the Golf Channel, has the answer for you … the future of magazine Modern Farmer is in doubt! … what’s it like to watch NFL film with Cris Collinsworth ahead of him calling the Super Bowl? … very cool read on Pro Football Focus, the stat-driven website … powerful lede here: Man who could win $1 million in fantasy baseball game has to settle for $27k after a water pipe burst and an MLB game was postponed … coming to every media outlet sooner rather than later: Conde Nast ‘branded content shop’ to be powered by editors.

Hannah Davis is on the cover of the 2015 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. The 5’10”, 24-year old was surprised by SI Swim boss M.J. Day yesterday before the official announcement on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. This is Davis’ third appearance in the SI Swimsuit issue.

Derek Jeter’s on-again, off-again, no one really knows either way girlfriend, Davis, is the fourth model in 2 years to be on the cover instead of Kate Upton. I guess freemium gaming advertisements are the new most coveted cover for models.

Finally, here are some outtakes from Davis’ 2014 SI Swim shoot.

[SPORTS ILLUSTRATED]

Sports Illustrated cover girl and off-and-on girlfriend of Derek Jeter, Hannah Davis, has taken up golf. Davis joined the likes of Nina Agdal and Paulina Gretzky in showing off her swing on Instagram. For a first timer, at least she is making contact with the ball, although it appeared she got under it just a tad and obviously she fell out of her stance, but overall she did pretty good.

We have reached the quarterfinals of March Media Madness. Vote early. Vote often. Express your visceral displeasure in the comments. Polls close Sunday evening. 

13. Tara and Johnny vs. 3. Scott Van Pelt

Tara and Johnny moved from dark horse to “odds removed from board,” after garnering more than 15,000 votes to fend off Rebecca Lowe. Scott Van Pelt is Scott Van Pelt.

12. Kacie McDonnell vs. 6. SI’s Impending Doom

Kacie McDonnell took down Bill Simmons. The MLS community came out strong. People seem to be fascinated by Sports Illustrated no longer being illustrated.

1. Katie Nolan vs. 2. Charles Barkley

Two near universally acclaimed fan favorites. Only one will reach the Media Madness Final Four.

12. Gonzalo Le Batard vs. 11. Samantha Ponder

Beast Mode was no match for Papi. Samantha Ponder pulled off an upset over Michelle Beadle.

Back in March Sports Illustrated picked Cleveland to win the World Series. Oops. As of Monday Cleveland owns the fewest wins in the American League (11) and second-worst winning percentage. If Twitter is to be believed, the team canceled its subscription to the magazine, too.

However the social media banter doesn’t have anything to do with the initial preseason proclamation, but rather a post about Cleveland’s porous team defense. The SI account teased this article with the wording, “Are the Indians the worst defensive team in modern Major League history.”

It led to this:

Print media loses again, apparently.

[via Cleveland.com]

PM Roundup, where we are just posting space filler so we don’t get fined.

NFL Reporters Will Be Lining Up to Take Shots at Him

Cowboy Hats are a natural with khakis

Yeah, But What Would It Be Without Beards?

Sports Illustrated Continues to Cut Back on the Photography Budget

Day 2 of the 40-Year Old Flacco, Let’s Stretch This Non-Story Out Fellas 

Never mind, do all the Joe Flacco in a decade stories you want …

This Date in TBL History: Nic Cage wore a hat (2014) … Flashing back to an ESPN Poll where more people preferred Matt Cassel to Aaron Rodgers (2013) … Polish Police and Topless Protests at Euro 2012 … Mark Grace mugshot (2011).

Miscellaneous: “Benny wears his hair long on top and short on the side, a style made popular by the Seattle rapper Macklemore” is probably the least annoying thing about this article … Virtual reality, where Arkansas can appear to have a viable passing attack.

Adrian Wojnarowski, the news-breaking NBA insider at Yahoo Sports, is being heavily courted by multiple media outlets – led by Sports Illustrated – to create basketball’s version of Peter King’s The MMQB, multiple sources tell The Big Lead.

The buzz in Cleveland this week at the NBA Finals was that with Wojnarowski’s contract up later this year – before the 2015-2016 NBA season begins – multiple outlets are pitching him on the idea of creating an NBA vertical that would become the internet’s top destination for basketball fans.

Wojnarowski didn’t return a text message seeking comment.

[RELATED: ESPN’s Ric Bucher Rips Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski Over Dwight Howard Trade Report, Then ESPN Reports the Deal is Close]

Sports Illustrated, which took Peter King from NFL insider and gave him a 24-7-365 football website, is said to be the leader to try and pry Wojnarowski from Yahoo Sports. Several writers at the NBA Finals claim that SI’s success with The MMQB has been a huge selling point, and it has a deep roster of basketball writers already on staff – Lee Jenkins, Phil Taylor, Pete Thamel and Chris Ballard, to name a few – who could contribute to the project.

Ultimately, the question will be whether or not Woj – who has a TV deal with Fox Sports – will want to leave Yahoo, where he and Dan Wetzel have been the driving forces behind the creation of its powerful sports section. ESPN, which has a lengthy, lucrative TV deal with the NBA, has come after Wojnarowski before.

Vertical websites built around one big writer have been hit-and-miss. Joe Posnanski tried to build one (mostly) around baseball and it – Sports on Earth – failed spectacularly and he left the site within the first year. ESPN built Grantland around Bill Simmons, and depending on what metrics you’d like to use – money, traffic, clout – it has worked or it hasn’t.

[RELATED: ESPN Writer Comes at Adrian Wojnarowski, Woj Fires Back at Entire WWL]

Simmons recently left ESPN, and it’s anyone’s guess what will happen to Grantland (NBA writers who spoke to The Big Lead anonymously for this do not think ESPN would let Zach Lowe leave Grantland anytime soon). Besides those sites, there’s The MMQB and the forthcoming “The Undefeated” from Jason Whitlock at ESPN.

The MMQB has been successful because its writers have the resources and editorial support to develop relationships across the league and pursue interesting, original storytelling. Unlike island sites at other outlets, they have this freedom while additionally receiving the full weight of SI’s portal distribution.

Andy Benoit, a contributor to SI’s MMQB website, is not a fan of women playing sports, in general. Shockingly, that sentiment is not going down well on the Internet in 2015.

He later tried to clarify and didn’t exactly get those knuckles off the floor.

Personal entertainment preferences are fine. Portraying your own prejudice as a cultural universal is something you do at your own peril.

Greg Hardy seemingly added some weight to his already hefty baggage by getting into a very public spat with Dez Bryant on the Dallas Cowboys sideline. Owner Jerry Jones stuck up for his defensive end in a postgame interview, calling him one of the real leaders on the team. Jenny Vrentas, a Sports Illustrated senior writer, had the same reaction many of members of the public had after the comment. The difference is that hers was captured on video.

[@gonzocsn]

Peter King, the popular veteran NFL writer, started the Monday Morning Quarterback website nearly three years ago. The site was announced in early 2013, and it rolled out in the summer of 2013. His deal with the website is up at the end of this season, and the biggest media rumor in NFL press boxes the last two weeks has been: Is Peter King bailing on the MMQB?

So I texted King this week to ask about the scuttlebutt, and he called me a few minutes later. Polite as ever, but sounding tired after a radio interview, he spoke glowingly about the site – “I love my job, it’s the best job of anyone in the media” – but admitted the workload is heavy.

“Three years ago, I was writing Monday Morning Quarterback, and two columns, and going on NBC Sunday nights,” King, 58, said. “Now, on top of that, I’m running a website, and it is clearly a bigger job than I had before. I hate to be vague, but I don’t know what I’m going to do yet.”

The always-angry internet will pounce on that and spin it into King whining, but it’s no easy task to be a must-read NFL writer who occasionally breaks news, travels to games, runs a website and appears on TV weekly.

Those who know King well say this feels like Howard Stern’s recent situation with Sirius, which went down to the wire, but was resolved amicably, pleasing everyone involved. Sirius, Stern’s staff, and his legion of listeners all exhaled.

The difference here is that King could still write his Monday Morning QB column, and two more columns, and go on TV … he just wouldn’t have to run a website, manage staff, deal with budgets, P&L reports, advertisers, etc. No longer being the face of the site would obviously hurt it, and one industry source even speculated his departure could be the “death knell” for Sports Illustrated, given how successful it has been. But we heard that before when Rick Reilly left for ESPN.

And all of that makes you wonder – given how many stand-alone websites led by media “stars” have failed, would King be smart to bail? Joe Posnanski’s Sports on Earth, Rob Neyer’s Just a Bit Outside, and Grantland by Bill Simmons all arrived with much fanfare, but ended up getting shut down for one reason or another. [Ed. A scaled down version of SOE still exists.] Jason Whitlock’s Undefeated still exists, but he’s no longer at the helm.

Sports Illustrated started a college football stand-alone site – Campus Rush – this Fall, and while it has quickly become a site loaded with information nuggets, it isn’t built around a media star.

Sports Illustrated has come out with their picks for the World Series. I’m sorry, Cubs and Astros fans. There’s always next year.

If you went by Sports Illustrated’s recent picks, the Indians would have finally broken their World Series drought last year (missed playoffs), the Washington Nationals would have been back-to-back champions (lost NLDS in 2014, missed playoffs in 2013), the Angels would have won in Albert Pujols’ first year (missed playoffs), and the Phillies would have won with their power arms in 2011 (lost NLDS).

So, if you are keeping score at home, the last five World Series picks have missed the playoffs more often than not, and none even reached the League Championship Series.

Sports Illustrated is doubling down on the young Astros, who surged to a playoff appearance last year. In 2014, Sports Illustrated tabbed the Astros as the 2017 World Series Champions. The positive for superstitious Cubs fans is that while everyone seems to be praising the Cubs, at least SI didn’t go all-in, expecting only the first World Series appearance since 1945 for Chicago.

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals, two-time defending AL champs, will get to look at their regional cover of the Astros on Sports Illustrated.

Rob Gronkowski, who is party, is in South Beach, and he is there with Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Hailey Clauson, the New York Post has learned.

The “Honk if you love Gronk” shirt is a nice touch, but most of the attention in this case revolves around Clauson, who graced the cover of this year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. The two were in South Beach for a film shoot with GQ.

We’re guessing the shoot went well.

Jonathan Jones is leaving the Charlotte Observer for Sports Illustrated, where he is expected to start within the next couple weeks, The Big Lead has learned from a source with knowledge of the situation. The source requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Jones declined to comment for the story.

Jones, who interned for SI in the summer of 2011, joined the Observer in August 2012, where he’s covered the Panthers, writing features, game stories, blogs and notes for the paper. At his new role at SI, Jones is expected to be a multi-platform national NFL reporter. He will contribute features, commentary, podcasts and videos; his work will appear on the website and in the magazine. In the last two years, Jones had talks with ESPN and Fox, but did not opt to leave the Observer until this offer came along. He will remain based in Charlotte.

As is the case with many national outlets, SI’s NFL coverage will look a bit different this season. Albert Breer joined Peter King’s MMQB vertical. Gone are Doug Farrar, who left for Bleacher Report in July, and Don Banks, who described himself as “a bit of a salary cap cut” in announcing he would be leaving the publication.

Kendrick Lamar performed at the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year Awards. LeBron James reminded us he is a huge fan of the rapper.

James, who won the award from Sports Illustrated, was presented the honor from legendary hip-hop superstar Jay Z. But King James, despite affiliation with the Roc Nation founder, was way more excited to see Lamar.

He knew every word to the song. He was also the only one dancing.

In late February, the Cleveland Cavaliers star tweeted at the founder of Lamar’s record label (Top Dawg Entertainment) that he needed more music from the Compton-born rapper.

Lamar had performed various untitled and unreleased songs on shows like The Colbert Report — watch it here.  

James said that he needed those tracks recorded and produced on an album.

Two weeks later, the West Coast rapper released a surprise album called Untitled Unmastered on March 4.

In an interview with Complex, the album’s producer Sounwave said that LeBron deserves a lot of credit for the release.

“When you get somebody like LeBron asking for them, it’s like, ‘Alright, maybe it is bigger than we think it is.’ That’s when Top got on the phone asking me and K. Dot to pick out our favorite records.”

It was awesome to watch this whole project come full circle as LeBron enthusiastically rapped to “Untitled No. 7” about levitation last night.

Don Banks, who wrote for Sports Illustrated for 16 years and was let go earlier this year in what he described as “a bit of a salary cap cut,” published his first “Snap Judgments” column for Patriots.com this past Sunday night. This column had been a staple at SI.com for 12 years, before landing at NFL.com Weeks 2 through 10 this season.

Banks tells The Big Lead he is still contributing content to NFL.com, but the Sunday evening “Snap Judgments” column wasn’t a fit there because that is a time the site is loading up on video content, and the column was a little bit redundant to their “What We Learned” feature.

When I first saw that Banks had brought his weekly column to Patriots.com, my initial inclination was that he must have had a connection with someone in football operations for the team, who was familiar with him through his long time reporting on the league and respected his writing. He was, for example, one of the first to write that the Deflategate hysteria was overwrought. (While he thought that the Pats should be punished if they broke the rules, he criticized the firestorm superseding the severity of the alleged infraction; this was before the Super Bowl, and months before the botched Ted Wells report and subsequent overpunishment.)

However, Banks tells me that his column landed at the team website not through a relationship to the football side, but from a media connection. A few weeks ago, Banks’s wife started a new job and they moved from Brooklyn to Boston. Banks had lived there before, and put out a bunch of feelers to old acquaintances in the local media that he was available for TV and radio spots.

One of these calls was to Paul Perillo, an editor at Patriots.com and co-host of Patriots Football Weekly. Perillo helped set Banks up with a meeting last week with the franchise’s Chief Digital Officer Fred Kirsch, who arranged for Banks to write the “Snap Judgments” column for the Patriots’ website every Sunday evening between this past week and the Super Bowl. Kirsch is apparently seeking to grow the site by broadening the scope to include national coverage.

Banks says that he has no editorial restrictions on this content, and maintained that he won’t cover the Patriots any more, less, or differently than he was doing before; Kirsch told him, “Write it how you’ve always written it. If you need to be critical be critical.”

Placekickers have been fighting a decades-long, uphill battle for respect. If there’s any good news for the group, it’s that anti-kicker vitriol isn’t as commonplace today as it was in the 1980s — or at least people aren’t as open with their disdain. Above is a reader letter submitted to Sports Illustrated and published in the Dec. 10, 1984 issue.

It is dripping with venom. To be fair, it also contains a revolutionary idea to incorporate non-human players into NFL rosters. This plan never materialized but may have been the inspiration for the Air Bud franchise.

The letter is a response to a Nov. 12 piece by Dr. Z. suggesting 11 prescriptions for a healthier NFL. Banning foreign-born, soccer-style kickers is not one of the suggested remedies. But, it’s interesting to see proposals put forth 32 years ago to improve the game. Some would get strong backing today, while others would be laughed out of hand. Dr. Z’s first two serve as a good example.

•No. 1—Change the scoring. Field goals are weighted too heavily. Put a premium on scoring touchdowns by making an 18-to 29-yard field goal (snapped from the one-to 12-yard line) worth only one point, a 30-to 45-yarder worth two and anything over 45 worth three. Now when a team gets stopped on the one, it kicks a field goal. Why should that be worth three-sevenths of what a TD and the extra point would have been worth? The true value for giving up should be one-seventh. And change the overtime rules. A team must win by either a touchdown or a three-point field goal (of 46 yards or more). Also, put in the two-point conversion. Give the coaches some real strategy decisions to make.

•No. 2—No more mass substitutions after every down. Limit it to one sub per team per play, except for injuries. Make the guys on the field play football—in all sorts of different situations. The 49ers’ coach, Bill Walsh, brought this up at the last league meetings, but it never got any farther than the suggestion stage.

Back to the letter. If one read this in a Sports Illustrated today, it’d reek of parody. That just goes to show you how far, as a country, we’ve come on the important issue of kicker acceptance — and how short we’ve fallen in the important field of creating professional sport-playing animals.

[SI Vault]

The 2017 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue will be released next Monday, and we are still awaiting the cover model(s) reveal.

According to Page Six, Kate Upton had a demand that she be one of those cover models before shooting.

“There was drama,” says the source. “Kate demanded that if she did the shoot, that she absolutely must get the cover. She also had a list of photographers and hair and makeup people she would only work with.”

The source continued of this time around, “She was being a big f - - king diva. She’s thinks she’s better than everyone because she’s an actress.”

There was no indication of how this supposed diva fit compared to her reaction of Justin Verlander not winning the Cy Young Award. According to Page Six, SI will likely having three different covers, featuring Serena Williams, Christie Brinkley, and Kate Upton.

Some highlights of the 63-year-old Brinkley’s return to SI were released last night, where she will be posing with her two daughters.