Jeter announced SI's Sportsman of the Year

Derek Jeter is the first Yankee to be presented Sports Illustrated's highly coveted Sportsman of the Year award. Jeter has been overlooked for the MVP award too many years in his career including this year in my opinion, but if there was one award that should have been a complete certainty, it was this one. Derek Jeter has remained one of the classiest players in all of sports to put on a uniform. The Yankee captain has always kept it real in interviews, on and off the field. You never hear about Jeter running into trouble late Saturday night. I'm sure Jete goes out just as much as all of us, and I'm sure he does his fair share of partying, especially after a 3-5, 4 rbi performance, however he is responsible. He does not let anything affect his play on the field. Injuries are no set back for Mr. Jeter. Jeter will never make an excuse about anything which is something you really want in a player performing in any sport. Excuses make a guy look soft. Jeter not only doesn't give excuses, he often never owns up to injuries, flat out. It takes a lot of pressure to get it out of him.

In today's day and age, athletes are always running into trouble because they are young, wild men, with a whole lot of testosterone, and a whole lot of bankroll. I guarantee that if i was in that position I would not be Saint Michael, however I'd do my best to do a better job than some of these thugs. With Tiger Woods being in the soup he is in at this point and time, its more than fitting that Sports Illustrated announced Jeter for this prestigious award. Now that Woods and TMZ have been used in the same sentence, I believe that Derek Jeter and Peyton Manning are hands down, the two classiest and most dominant athletes I have seen in my lifetime. I am so proud and satisfied that I have gotten to grow up and watch greatness. I got to see how their careers have come from rookies to veterans, and from a great players, to legends.