Everybody knows why the Hawks lost to the Kings in seven games. It wasn’t the speed of the Kings power play. Nor was it the disparity between goaltenders Corey Crawford and Jonathan Quick. In fact, everybody knows the only reason the Kings prevailed over the Hawks was because of the Sports Illustrated ‘Third Article From The Back’ Jinx that struck last week when the magazine ran an article on Hawks captain Jonathan Toews.
Rumor has it than when the Blackhawks front-office heard that the article on Toews was going to follow a piece on Ryan Braun rebuilding his image again and finally being at piece with himself again, and just before an insider’s look at the Westminster Dog Show, the Hawks front office begged and pleaded with the content editors at SI to please move the Toews article anywhere but where it was currently located. After they were told that the article would stay 3rd from the back, the Hawks management promptly took to Twitter and told the President of Mexico to “Go Fuck Yourself.”
Other examples of the Sports Illustrated ‘Third Article From The Back’ Jinx include:
*An in-depth piece written about Tiger Woods rehab from knee-injury being chronicled one week and then next week Bam! We find out that Tiger’s cheating on his wife with 20 prostitutes.
*After an article written about Miami Marlins Right Fielder Giancarlo Stanton playing like an All-Star, the team promptly goes out and loses game one of a doubleheader to the Braves.
*A guide to the first round of the NBA playoffs is posted as SI’s third article and then next week the Charlotte Bobcats are unceremoniously swept out of the playoffs by Miami, and we find out the Donald Sterling is one of those old-timey racists from the Civil War Era.
Although the Blackhawks players claimed they never thought about the article while playing, to a man, they all confessed it was hard to focus as the series went on knowing that the pressure of the third article curse was weighing them down day by day.
