Pretty major gaffe in this week's SI

In the story about Auburn quarterback Cam Newton, Lars Anderson writes:

O.J. Simpson, anyone?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1176386/3/index.htm

 

oy.

sadly, no longer a shocking oversight the once-pristine mag.

 

This could almost become a running thread.

Almost.

 

Okay. The first junior college transfer to win the Heisman who isn't doing time.

 

Wasn't Roger Staubach the first junior college transfer to win a Heisman Trophy -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Staubach

 

Since O.J.'s Heisman was melted, maybe he doesn't technically have it anymore.

 

Interesting question, but I think New Mexico Military Institute is a high school as well as a junior college, and that Staubach went there to polish up the college prep part of his high school transcript.

I may be wrong here, but I believe NMMI was more a fifth year of h.s. for Staubach then it was actual college courses.

 

The worst part about it isn't that "It's SI" (i.e. we expect more from them), but the fact that they have people whose job is strictly to fact-check. If it's a daily paper, even a major one, it's easy to argue that a copy editor might miss a factual error if not an expert on the subject matter.

But at SI? Having worked in the Time, Inc., system, I know that there are plenty of entry-level types who are in charge of, you know, checking facts. I know SI has been hit like anywhere else in terms of lost jobs but still, that's one of those glaring "This is a fact you should check because there's an easily findable list of Heisman winners" kind of facts that should jump out at you if you're doing that job. And then you should fix it before it ever gets anywhere near print.

I'm not one for these look-at-[insertmajorpublication]'s-stupid-error schadenfreude fests that threads can turn into, but come on. Seems like an easily avoidable mistake.

 

I don't know Lars Anderson or anything about his background. But if he's like a lot of others hired there, he might be young enough to believe sports began with the advent of ESPN.