NBCHannah Davis doesn't know what the fuss is all about. It's just skin, people.
During a sit-down with Matt Lauer on Today this morning, the Sports Illustrated 2015 Swimsuit Issue cover girl said that her cover—which features Davis tugging her bikini bottoms down to a how-low-can-you-go level—wasn't really as risky as it's being cracked up to be.
In fact, Davis said, Today's decision to censor the cover makes it seem much more NSFW than it really is.
"Were we being prudent or just prudes, what's your opinion?" Lauer asked the 24-year-old model.
"Well, I think you're making it look a lot naughtier than it really is, to be honest," Davis said.
"I think SI always tried to do something a little different every year and I think this year it's the year of the torso," she explained.
Oh, so that's her torso on display.
As for her ascendance to the SI spotlight, Davis admitted it was an "overwhelming moment" when she found out that she had scored the highly coveted cover after being in the magazine twice before.
"The editor of Sports Illustrated came in with this cover and, yes, as you can see I was crying," she recalled as a clip played from the moment when she got the good news. "I was so blindsided by the whole thing."
Davis said that she's been talking to her fellow cover girls such as Chrissy Teigen and Kate Upton, who've been helping her get a handle on her big moment.
"But I would really like to model my career after someone like Kathy Ireland...I think she just built this incredible empire," she added. "But she honors the fact that Sports Illustrated was the platform that sort of got her to that place."
Though Lauer described Davis as "single" and she didn't correct him, he then asked her what longtime love interest Derek Jeter thought about her cover coup, noting that she's been dating the now retired New York Yankee for some time.
She replied, somewhat cryptically, "Um, I think everyone was really excited for me. My family and friends, they all flew in and threw me a surprise party, so...it's nice to celebrate with everyone."
Asked if she would please tell Jeter it wasn't too late to report to spring training, Davis said, "I think retirement's great." And when Lauer pressed that they now have more time to spend together, she replied with a bit of a shrug, "Yeah."
Watch the exchange right here:
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