There are times we do not need a scoreboard to know who the champion is. Nor a television highlight to find the hero.
At such a moment, someone stands tall, too gallant to miss.
Here is one of them. His name is Pat Tillman.
Until this week, he was a pro football player. One facemask among the hundreds. A safety for the Arizona Cardinals, with a new contract waiting on the table that would pay him millions.
Now he is unique. A professional athlete standing alone. He will not take the contract. He will not play. He will pass on the fame, the fortune, the charter jets, the Sunday roars. The comfortable and lavish and glaring life.
He's joining the Army.
He wants to serve his country. He wants to be a Ranger. He is 25 years old, so it is now or never.
Some will look at this in wonder. Some will look and wonder about his sanity. But whatever the special force within that calls Pat Tillman, the NFL took second place.
I am trying to think of another case in recent years to match this. A young, established professional athlete, with much of his career ahead, walking away from it all to put his life on the line.
Army Rangers die, in dark and dangerous places. Several of them have, just lately.
I can think of none.
But to study Tillman's past is to sense someone extraordinary.
He is only 5-foot-11.
But he was determined enough to be a linebacker for a Rose Bowl team at Arizona State, accomplished enough to be drafted by Arizona.
He was a big-time college athlete.
But he was an eager student, too. Enough to graduate in 3 1/2 years with a 3.84 grade point average.
He was an NFL rookie with new money.
But he rode his bicycle to that first training camp because he did not own a car.
He was offered a $9 million, multiyear contract last year by the St. Louis Rams.
But he turned it down for less money because he thought he owed his loyalty to the Cardinals.
Now he has other plans. Whether it was Sept. 11 or something more, Tillman is driven by a sense of duty.
The last months of terror and warnings have been stark reminders of how deadly a world is out there.
Someone has to protect us.
Someone may have to save us.
Pat Tillman, who just came home from his honeymoon, wants to help do it.
We do not cheer those people nearly often enough. We cheer for quarterbacks, for home run hitters, for jump shooters, for goalies. We pay them baskets of cash, and then additional baskets of cash when they demand even more.
But those who stand guard and occasionally give their lives usually serve to silence. We assume they are there, often take them for granted. Even now.
Oh, there is a holiday for those who have fallen. It is a nice weekend for picnics and auto races. Tillman announced his decision just before Memorial Day.
Maybe he gets back to the NFL one day. Maybe not. He is risking so much. So very, very much.
I will think of Tillman the next time an athlete or owner oozes greed. The next time they want more and more still, wishing to be treated as if they are bastions of the republic.
They are not. Men and women like Pat Tillman are.
The nominations for man of the year in the sports world are now closed. We have a winner, even if it is not yet June.
He is not going to training camp. He is going to boot camp. And after that, well ... God be with him.
http://www.youthclassic.org/feature_articles/tillman.html
At such a moment, someone stands tall, too gallant to miss.
Here is one of them. His name is Pat Tillman.
Until this week, he was a pro football player. One facemask among the hundreds. A safety for the Arizona Cardinals, with a new contract waiting on the table that would pay him millions.
Now he is unique. A professional athlete standing alone. He will not take the contract. He will not play. He will pass on the fame, the fortune, the charter jets, the Sunday roars. The comfortable and lavish and glaring life.
He's joining the Army.
He wants to serve his country. He wants to be a Ranger. He is 25 years old, so it is now or never.
Some will look at this in wonder. Some will look and wonder about his sanity. But whatever the special force within that calls Pat Tillman, the NFL took second place.
I am trying to think of another case in recent years to match this. A young, established professional athlete, with much of his career ahead, walking away from it all to put his life on the line.
Army Rangers die, in dark and dangerous places. Several of them have, just lately.
I can think of none.
But to study Tillman's past is to sense someone extraordinary.
He is only 5-foot-11.
But he was determined enough to be a linebacker for a Rose Bowl team at Arizona State, accomplished enough to be drafted by Arizona.
He was a big-time college athlete.
But he was an eager student, too. Enough to graduate in 3 1/2 years with a 3.84 grade point average.
He was an NFL rookie with new money.
But he rode his bicycle to that first training camp because he did not own a car.
He was offered a $9 million, multiyear contract last year by the St. Louis Rams.
But he turned it down for less money because he thought he owed his loyalty to the Cardinals.
Now he has other plans. Whether it was Sept. 11 or something more, Tillman is driven by a sense of duty.
The last months of terror and warnings have been stark reminders of how deadly a world is out there.
Someone has to protect us.
Someone may have to save us.
Pat Tillman, who just came home from his honeymoon, wants to help do it.
We do not cheer those people nearly often enough. We cheer for quarterbacks, for home run hitters, for jump shooters, for goalies. We pay them baskets of cash, and then additional baskets of cash when they demand even more.
But those who stand guard and occasionally give their lives usually serve to silence. We assume they are there, often take them for granted. Even now.
Oh, there is a holiday for those who have fallen. It is a nice weekend for picnics and auto races. Tillman announced his decision just before Memorial Day.
Maybe he gets back to the NFL one day. Maybe not. He is risking so much. So very, very much.
I will think of Tillman the next time an athlete or owner oozes greed. The next time they want more and more still, wishing to be treated as if they are bastions of the republic.
They are not. Men and women like Pat Tillman are.
The nominations for man of the year in the sports world are now closed. We have a winner, even if it is not yet June.
He is not going to training camp. He is going to boot camp. And after that, well ... God be with him.
http://www.youthclassic.org/feature_articles/tillman.html
Those who know Pat Tillman know that he always has welcomed a challenge.
As a youth, he high-dived from bridges and cliffs. At Arizona State, he hopped the fence at Sun Devil Stadium and climbed a light tower. Before reporting for training camp with the Arizona Cardinals two years ago, he competed in a 70-mile triathlon.
"He's like Forrest Gump. He tries everything," says Frank Sanders, his former teammate.
So no one should have been surprised last spring when Tillman, entering his fourth NFL season, shucked it all and joined his brother, Kevin, in setting out to become an Army Ranger. What's a three-year, $3.6 million pro football contract when you can collect $18,000 a year from Uncle Sam?
"Pat has very deep and true convictions," Cardinals coach Dave McGinnis said at the time. "He's a deep thinker, and believe me, this was something he thought out."
Tillman made no public statement. He wasn't in this for the publicity. But you didn't need to dig too deeply to find an explanation for his actions. Friends said that the 9/11 terrorist attacks had affected him deeply. Cardinals defensive coordinator Larry Marmie, after a conversation with his former player, said Tillman felt he needed to "pay something back" for the comfortable life he had been afforded.
Whatever his rationale, he clearly was serious about his pursuit. He and Kevin completed basic training in July and advanced through individual training in October. They graduated from parachute school in November, and completed the Ranger Indoctrination Program in December. Just that quickly, Tillman was assigned to the second battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment in Fort Lewis, Washington.
"He's a full-fledged Ranger now," Army spokesperson Carol Darby reported. "He's ready for combat. He will move with his unit for whatever that unit is involved in."
The 75th Ranger Regiment was deployed recently, presumably to the Middle East. If the description that the Army attaches to the unit ("flexible, highly trained, and rapidly deployed light infantry force with specialized skills") is any measure, the 75th likely will wind up in the middle of the most serious action.
You can be sure that Tillman will be prepared for the challenge. He succeeds at just about everything he sets out to do.
Consider…
He arrived at Arizona State in 1994 on the school's last remaining football scholarship, landing a spot on the end of the bench, where dreams go to expire. He left four seasons later as the Pac-10 Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
He was selected by the Cardinals with the 226th pick of the 1998 draft -- the league packed up and went home after pick 241 -- and five months later, he was Arizona's starting strong safety.
This is a fellow who doesn't know the meaning of fail -- on the field, in the classroom, or anywhere else. He had a 3.84 grade-point average at ASU and graduated with a degree in marketing in 3½ years.
Pat Tillman is nothing if not unusual. In college, he played linebacker, where he was thought to be too small. In the NFL, he played safety, where he was thought to be too slow. When he set a club record for tackles in 2000 and attracted the interest of another team, the St. Louis Rams, he declined their five-year offer sheet out of loyalty to the club that had drafted him.
NFL players hardly have been strangers to military service. Roger Staubach served four years after graduating from the Naval Academy before joining the Dallas Cowboys as a 27-year-old rookie in 1969. Rocky Bleier of the Pittsburgh Steelers nearly lost a leg to a land mine when he did a tour of duty in Vietnam.
But the list of names grows a little shorter when it comes to NFL players who have walked away from million-dollar contracts in the prime of their careers.
The story that comes to mind is one told by Bruce Snyder, Tillman's coach at Arizona State. It seems that Snyder planned to redshirt Tillman as a freshman, extending his eligibility by a season. Of course, that would necessitate Tillman remaining in college for an extra year.
"You can do whatever you want with me," Tillman said, "but in four years I'm gone. I've got things to do with my life."
Obviously, he still does.
http://www.nfl.com/insider/story/5701425
As a youth, he high-dived from bridges and cliffs. At Arizona State, he hopped the fence at Sun Devil Stadium and climbed a light tower. Before reporting for training camp with the Arizona Cardinals two years ago, he competed in a 70-mile triathlon.
"He's like Forrest Gump. He tries everything," says Frank Sanders, his former teammate.
So no one should have been surprised last spring when Tillman, entering his fourth NFL season, shucked it all and joined his brother, Kevin, in setting out to become an Army Ranger. What's a three-year, $3.6 million pro football contract when you can collect $18,000 a year from Uncle Sam?
"Pat has very deep and true convictions," Cardinals coach Dave McGinnis said at the time. "He's a deep thinker, and believe me, this was something he thought out."
Tillman made no public statement. He wasn't in this for the publicity. But you didn't need to dig too deeply to find an explanation for his actions. Friends said that the 9/11 terrorist attacks had affected him deeply. Cardinals defensive coordinator Larry Marmie, after a conversation with his former player, said Tillman felt he needed to "pay something back" for the comfortable life he had been afforded.
Whatever his rationale, he clearly was serious about his pursuit. He and Kevin completed basic training in July and advanced through individual training in October. They graduated from parachute school in November, and completed the Ranger Indoctrination Program in December. Just that quickly, Tillman was assigned to the second battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment in Fort Lewis, Washington.
"He's a full-fledged Ranger now," Army spokesperson Carol Darby reported. "He's ready for combat. He will move with his unit for whatever that unit is involved in."
The 75th Ranger Regiment was deployed recently, presumably to the Middle East. If the description that the Army attaches to the unit ("flexible, highly trained, and rapidly deployed light infantry force with specialized skills") is any measure, the 75th likely will wind up in the middle of the most serious action.
You can be sure that Tillman will be prepared for the challenge. He succeeds at just about everything he sets out to do.
Consider…
He arrived at Arizona State in 1994 on the school's last remaining football scholarship, landing a spot on the end of the bench, where dreams go to expire. He left four seasons later as the Pac-10 Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
He was selected by the Cardinals with the 226th pick of the 1998 draft -- the league packed up and went home after pick 241 -- and five months later, he was Arizona's starting strong safety.
This is a fellow who doesn't know the meaning of fail -- on the field, in the classroom, or anywhere else. He had a 3.84 grade-point average at ASU and graduated with a degree in marketing in 3½ years.
Pat Tillman is nothing if not unusual. In college, he played linebacker, where he was thought to be too small. In the NFL, he played safety, where he was thought to be too slow. When he set a club record for tackles in 2000 and attracted the interest of another team, the St. Louis Rams, he declined their five-year offer sheet out of loyalty to the club that had drafted him.
NFL players hardly have been strangers to military service. Roger Staubach served four years after graduating from the Naval Academy before joining the Dallas Cowboys as a 27-year-old rookie in 1969. Rocky Bleier of the Pittsburgh Steelers nearly lost a leg to a land mine when he did a tour of duty in Vietnam.
But the list of names grows a little shorter when it comes to NFL players who have walked away from million-dollar contracts in the prime of their careers.
The story that comes to mind is one told by Bruce Snyder, Tillman's coach at Arizona State. It seems that Snyder planned to redshirt Tillman as a freshman, extending his eligibility by a season. Of course, that would necessitate Tillman remaining in college for an extra year.
"You can do whatever you want with me," Tillman said, "but in four years I'm gone. I've got things to do with my life."
Obviously, he still does.
http://www.nfl.com/insider/story/5701425
Former NFL Player Pat Tillman Killed in Afghanistan, CNN Says
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=atin7DUjrrlo&refer=us
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=atin7DUjrrlo&refer=us
what a total class act this guy was. this truly is sad. he turns down more money with the rams becuase he felt he owed the cardinals, a much less succesful franchise, his loyality. we dont see this very much at all with athletes but then he also has a very high grade point average and turns down the big money to go defend his country over seas in a very hostile enviroment.
i really wish he could have made it back. this is very sad.
i really wish he could have made it back. this is very sad.
Banned 4 life you are an imbecile. What lies did he die for? He enlisted after september 11 2001.
They should make Eli Manning watch this guys story for about 10 hours today and then let's ask the little snotnose hick where he wants to play next season.
Thanks Pat Tillman and thanks to everyone who puts on the uniform.
for Pat Tillman #40
They should make Eli Manning watch this guys story for about 10 hours today and then let's ask the little snotnose hick where he wants to play next season.
Thanks Pat Tillman and thanks to everyone who puts on the uniform.
