Roger Goodell in 'Game of Thrones' cover for 'Sports Illustrated'

Chris Chase, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

An illustration of Roger Goodell sitting on the Iron Throne, the iconic chair from HBO's fantasy epic Game of Thrones, appears on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated issue that highlights the 50 most powerful people in sports.

The NFL commissioner is named No. 1 on the list, ahead of his fellow commissioners, various television executives, CEOs and, for some reason, Barack Obama.

A blurb that accompanies Goodell's entry avoids the Game of Thrones angle, which seems like a huge missed opportunity. Surely they could have mixed metaphors about concussions being the NFL's Battle of Blackwater and how the NFL's young crop of rookie quarterbacks are the dragons to Goodell's Daenerys. SI mentions the USA TODAY Sports poll that found 61 percent of players disapprove of Goodell. The Joffrey jokes practically write themselves!

Other thoughts:

• Time Warner owns Sports Illustrated. Time Warner owns HBO. HBO begins the third season of Game of Thrones on March 31. That's the sort of cross-promotional, deal mechanical, revenue streaming, synergy jargon that Jack Donaghy would love.

• The synergy continued when almost every Sports Illustrated writer on Twitter sent out a link to the cover around 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning. Did I immediately check to see whether Peter Dinklage had tweeted the same thing, then became disappointed when I saw Peter Dinklage doesn't have a Twitter account? Perhaps.

• Goodell's cover is an exact copy of a Season 1 advertisement featuring Ned Starke. I hope Goodell's season goes better than his.