Filipino-Americans in the Bay Area, my target audience, will want to note that a Foster City fan?s letter published in the latest Sports Illustrated magazine says Manny Pacquiao, not Super Bowl-winning quarterback Drew Brees, should have been named the magazine?s Sportsman of the Year.
Here?s Sports Illustrated?s version of what Jovy Jose wrote:
What about Manny Pacquiao?s record-setting accomplishments in the ring and his generosity in supporting the poor in his native Philippines? Yes, Brees is an inspiration to (New Orleans), but Pacquiao is an inpiration to an entire country.
I concur, although I?m sort of a Drew Brees fan, too.
I still haven?t gotten over SI?s minimal attention to the Pacquiao phenomenon. The magazine has missed several opportunities to make amends for its failure to put his victory over Oscar De La Hoya on the cover in 2008.
Then again, my judgment in the Bay Area is probably influenced by my proximity to the nexus of Pacquiao?s North American fan base, not to mention my interaction with many readers in the Philippines via philboxing.com and PACLAND .
So maybe this is only a Bay Area discussion that is finally going national, as CBS’s recent Sixty Minutes segment recently reflected. It was fitting, in any case, that a Bay Area letter writer had his say. Congratulation, Jovy Jose.
