Sports Illustrated

Way back in 1998, when I was a staffer at Sports Illustrated, we’d occasionally get a call from someone at People Magazine, seeking advice about something related to athletics. Maybe a People writer needed to know a term. Maybe an editor sought to confirm the spelling of Y-I-N-K-A D-A-R-E. Whatever the case, we always found it funny, because the People folk knew absolutely nothing about sports.



Which leads to the 1998 and the Sexiest Man Alive issue.


This was an annual People specialty, and along with having an overall “sexiest” man (usually a Clooney-type) gracing the cover, the inside pages would feature a Sexiest This, Sexiest that. Sexiest Librarian. Sexiest Doctor. Sexiest Fisherman. For the ‘98 issue, People sought out a Sexiest Athlete.



I’m sure they asked the good folk at SI for ideas, and as rumor has it (and as I verified years ago) an editor with our magazine suggested Rich Gannon, my fellow Blue Hen and—at the time—the Chiefs’ dashing quarterback. So a photographer named Toby Black headed to Kansas City with the assignment, “Shoot pictures of the Chiefs quarterback.”



Which he did.



Only, eh, he shot the wrong quarterback.





Elvis Grbac was, indeed, a Chiefs quarterback. But not the Chiefs quarterback, and certainly not the sexiest Chiefs quarterback. But People’s editors knew not what to do, so they swallowed their pride and presented Elvis Grbac—not a sexy man—as a sexy man.



Hilarity ensued.