Pick up a copy of the power issue of Sports Illustrated this week, which is full of Game of Thrones-inspired content!
Sports Illustrated has put together an inspired issue this week to celebrate the upcoming third season of Game of Thrones. The “power issue” features Roger Goodell on the cover seated on the Iron Throne (or the “throne of games”), as well as several articles determining the power structure of the “kingdom of sports.”
In the lead article, which determines the top 50 powerful people within the sports world, writers Matt Bean, Jon Wertheim and Richard Deitsch use Game of Thrones to explain how such a power structure is determined.
They write, “Transfers of power in sports are less bloody than in Game of Thrones but no less intriguing, which is why it’s worth asking in the following pages, Who sits atop our Throne of Games?”
As the article goes on, they even use quotes from the series to illustrate their point, writing, “Power resides where men believe it resides, says a wise spymaster in Game of Thrones. It’s a trick, a shadow on the wall. And a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”
Further, Sports Illustrated has also done a podcast interview with A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin, in which he gets in on the game of comparing his series to the sports world.
In the interview, Martin says that, “In the Ice and Fire books, there is a lot of analogy between what the knights do and what modern football players or boxers or people in other combat-related sports do,” referring to their rigorous training regimen and the interest surrounding the jousting tournaments from the public.
On the magazine’s website you can also read a Q&A with the editors in which they explain how this project came about, and how they determined the power list in the issue.
This issue of Sports Illustrated is available on newsstands now, and can also be purchased in digital format on SI.com.
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