Super Bowl Postcard: Day 5

GLENDALE -- Pat Tillman isn't a big part of Super Bowl XLII, even though this was where he played college and pro football. But just for the record, outside the big inflatable-looking stadium in Glendale where Sunday's game will be contested - a stadium Tillman never lived to play in -- amidst the carnival attractions of the NFL Experience, stands Pat Tillman Freedom Plaza, which contains an 8-foot bronze statue of Tillman as an Arizona Cardinal.

The statue is modeled after a photo you've surely seen, the one where Tillman is running onto the field, holding his helmet out, long hair swirling.

Giants offensive lineman Grey Ruegamer is the only New York player here with a Super Bowl ring (he played for the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVI), and the only Giant who played with Tillman, as his Arizona State teammate.

Knowing Pat," Ruegamer told the Newark Star-Ledger, after a visit to the plaza on media day, "he probably would have been (angry) that they spent so much money on that. When I thought about that, it put a smile on my face."

Ruegamer has said that Tillman has been on his mind since he arrived in Phoenix and saw the Super Bowl commemorative jerseys and hats, with No. 42 on them. That was Tillman's college number, now retired by Arizona State, as is his No. 40 with the Cardinals.

Actual Super Bowl commemorations of Tillman, who quit the NFL to enlist as an Army Ranger and was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004, are hard to come by out here. Nine-four-four magazine hosted some kind of tailgate event today with Laila Ali and Vicks Early Defense hand sanitizer, with proceeds going to the Pat Tillman foundation. (Paris Hilton is on the cover of 944 this month, so the hand sanitizer could come in handy.)

Also, as part of FOX's pregame show Sunday, a bunch of NFL people and military personnel around the world are going to read parts of the Declaration of Independence. One of the readers will be Tillman's widow, Marie.