Blackfive reminded me to go vote for Pat Tillman for SI Sportsman of the Year.

You can go to the Sports Illustrated Web site and vote for this year’s Sportsman of the Year.

Typically, these type of honors and awards are meaningless and insignificant. But Pat Tillman winning this year’s SI Sportsman of the Year would mean a lot to a lot of people.

In case you’ve forgotten, Pat is the former collegiate and NFL star who gave up millions of dollars to continue his lofty career in the NFL, and traded in his helmet and shoulder pads for BDUs and an M16 in the US Army Rangers. I wrote about his death here.

First, go read what SI’s Tim Layden wrote about why you should vote for Pat.

When the St. Louis Rams offered him a huge raise, he turned it down to stay in Phoenix because it wasn’t about the money. When he felt a stirring in his soul to go fight wars, he left football because football was no longer enough. It was just a sport.

Sortapundit argues that Pat Tillman would not have wanted the type of attention that accompanies this award. And, that might have been true of Pat Tillman before he joined the US Army.

However, Pat Tillman winning this honor would remind all of our soldiers that we consider what they do to be more important than a bunch of millionaires exercising. My brother, a recruiter in the US Army, could use Pat Tillmans honor in a way I’m sure Tillman would not have minded…to help recruit more and more quality soldiers into the military service.

So, even if you don’t care about Sports or about Pat Tillman, I urge you to go vote for Pat Tillman as SI’s Sportsman of the Year. Do it now. It only takes a few seconds.

UPDATE: SI has already awarded the Sportsmen of the Year award to the Boston Redsox. How horribly disappointing, SI. Sure a long losing streak finally ended. But nothing about the Red Sox World Series victory screams out “Sportsmanship”. No single individual on that team would be held up as an extraordinary example of sportsmanship. Not a single Red Sox could carry Tillman’s rucksack, or give back as much as Armstrong, or capture the spirit of a nation (and not just the insignificant “Red Sox Nation”) like Phelps did. I’d cancel my subscription if I had one (which also reaffirms my decision not to purchase this rag).