Cursed Again? Papelbon graces cover of S.I.

Sports Illustrated slaps its dreaded cover jinx on the Sox by putting closer Jonathan Papelbon on the front of this week's issue

Look, aren't we Red Sox fans a paranoid, superstitious and freakishly pessimistic enough bunch? Do we really deserve this kind of karmic crotch kick on the eve of the 2007 postseason?

While everyone else has the AL East crown all but engraved with the BoSox "B", here in the Nation we are crossing every appendage, wringing every rosary and reciting every good luck prayer that Boston doesn't blow this seemingly insurmountable three-game lead in the final series of the regular season.

And now we have to deal with this.

The SI cover jinx is not as legendary a curse as that of the Bambino nor the Billy Goat, but it is a marginally more powerful and quantifiable entity than that neophyte light weight hex, the Madden cover jinx.

This titan of torture began with the very first issue in 1954 and has continued throughout the decades unimpeded in its ability to render once powerful and successful athletes broken down, tragedy-inflicted, injury-prone messes.

And now it has set its sights on the Nation's beloved glaring, fireballing, fist-pumping closer.

One week before the start of the ALDS.

Thanks a lot, motherfuckers!