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Like a puppy with large paws, ESPN The Magazine may grow up to be a large periodical. Right now I’d call it a fun-loving puppy without housetraining.
Don’t get me wrong, puppies are cute. I like puppies. Everybody does.
You may not want to pay an annual subscription for a magazine that looks and acts like a puppy, though. That’s your call. I wanted SI, but that venerable publication can’t be had for the price of frequent flyer miles like ESPN The Magazine can. So I compromised.
By comparison with SI, ESPN The Magazine gives you a flashier, big-photo, post-modern jumble of short pieces that seems to derive from the verbal, television-friendly style of its parent. I’m not the deepest of sports fan, so I don’t mind this. But if you’re after the kind of in-depth analysis that SI offers, you might be disappointed by this alternative.
ESPN The Magazine is definitely a fun read, and if that’s what you want, you’ll like this. When my first issue came wrapped in a ‘special promotional issue cover jacket’ that presented Ricky Bobby as ‘Sports Figure of the Year?’, I knew instantly that this publication couldn’t be all bad.
And it’s not.
But it’s light. It’s airy. It’s bubbly.
Think SI Lite. Think halfway between a comic book and USA Today. Think a puppy with big feet.
Hey, puppies are just all right with me.
Canter Bridge 
Thinks of ESPN Mag as Rolling Stone — same format, size, etc. — and SI as USNews and World Report. I find that ESPN is often too self-consciously hip and urban, while SI is admittedly pretty stodgy. I have subscribed to both in the past, but no longer. I found SI to be pretty copy-intensive, and I’ve become a lazy reader who prefers McGraphics and photos. I stopped subscribing to ESPN, though, after reading one too many article providing an in-depth look into the life of a 25-year old meathead with no apparent redeeming value beyond speed in the 40.
Fritz,
As usual, you are lucid, accurate,and poetic in your depiction of life down here on the ground. Regarding your separate email, consider it done: i.e. the purchase of RS’s 40th anniversary issue. I’ll pick one up at Heathrow when I transit from Cyprus tomorrow.
This is the first time I’ve heard you resort to the word ‘meathead’ in such a … um … transcendant fashion.
‘Very promising, sort of.