SI Went All Out, Sent Swimsuit Hopefuls To Disgusting Atlantic City For Bikini Shoot

Guys, I hate to go all woke here and go off on a tangent, but I have to stand up for the swimsuit models and the Instagram models out there who are giving their all to make the 2021 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. The one-time granddaddy of them all is basically an afterthought these days, just barely hanging on during a time when guys can just dial up their favorite models on Instagram who provide a steady stream of content.

SI is holding its 'Swimsuit Search' contest this week where they shoot photos of a dozen or so women and then six or so make the magazine, and they treated the ladies to an Atlantic City trip to do the test shoot. Talk about embarrassing for the former gold standard of the industry.

Atlantic City? Are you kidding me? We're talking about the 30th best beach in NEW JERSEY! THE FIRST WEEK OF MAY! WE'RE TALKING ABOUT OLD PEOPLE SUCKING DOWN THEIR FINAL BREATHS WHILE GUNNING THROUGH A BENJAMIN TRYING TO HIT IT BIG ON THE PENNY SLOTS.

We're talking about a boardwalk where, in April, a 12-year-old stabbed and killed a souvenir shop owner after the boy's group of thug friends destroyed the store and assaulted individuals, according to a local news story. We're talking about a boardwalk that's such a disaster that the broke state is thinking about the grandeur of pot money to rebuild the damn thing. We're talking about an ocean temperature of 54-degrees.

And that's where Sports Illustrated sent swimsuit models this week. To that dump. This is right up there with the Colts sending their cheerleaders to shoot a calendar while standing on Ohio River driftwood, minus the cig smoke and old people blowing Social Security checks before getting back on the buses. This is like the Colts sending their cheerleaders to shoot a calendar in a disgusting creek (pic 28 of 45).

Look I get it, Sports Illustrated doesn't have big boy money these days. How about we treat these ladies to a trip to Marco Island. Throw them on a dirt-cheap Allegiant flight to Fort Myers, everyone jumps on a bus, and boom you're to the resort location in like an hour. Instead, we have swimsuit hopefuls acting all happy that they're in Atlantic City where syringes and medical waste wash ashore.

This is what it has come to for the SI swimsuit issue, and it's so sad. The days of racing to the mailbox in February to get my hands on that collector's item are long gone, and they've been replaced with watching swimsuit models working in a city where even the casino winnings were down 35% in November.

Do better, SI.