SI FORECAST

Often, it's cloudy with a chance of accuracy

1967 Advocated for 12-foot college rims

1975 Predicted the popularization of indoor soccer

1975 Reported on "revival" of the WFL [It folded six months later)

1977 Predicted mopeds would replace the second family car

1978 Heralded a "watershed year for pro soccer in the U.S." Too soon

1979 D.C.'s sports landscape "doesn't leave any place for baseball"

1980 Predicted the popularization of teletrack racing (What? Exactly)

1986 "TV Sports Are in Big Trouble"

1989 "Wood Bats are Doomed"

1993 "Can the NFL Be Saved?"

1994 "Is Tennis Dying?"

In 1979, SI asked a few NFL big shots to imagine what football would look like at the turn of the century

"There won't be any contact below the waist."

—Bum Phillips Oilers coach

"Twenty-five-yard end zone."

—Marv Levy Chiefs coach

"... A little metal fleck in the football, so you can tell whether the ball got over the goal line."

—Tex Schramm Cowboys GM

"Maybe there will be a machine doing the coach's job. It'll be second and four, the guy will punch a button on his chest and—wonk, wonk, wonk—'O.K., run off tackle.'"

—John Madden Broadcaster

ILLUSTRATION

ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN CUNEO

PHOTO