Photo Illustration by: Herbie Martin
Fallen
Hero!
Pat
Tillman dies in Afghanistan leaving a legacy of heroism and patriotism
by:
herbie martin
Just
a day before the much ballyhooed NFL Draft came the news that
former Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman has died while
serving his country in Afghanistan. No, Patrick Tillman was not
drafted to be a Ranger, one of the most elite groups in the US Army.
He wanted it to be one!
The 27
year old Tillman, who began his professional career with Cardinals,
played until 2001 when he became a free-agent. He actually turned down
over 3 million dollars for a chance to become a Ranger at $18,000
a year.
You see,
what happened on September 11th, 2001, changed a lot of people
in America. For Tillman, it was more than a day of infamy. For
him it was a chance to do something with his life that not only made
sense, but was honorable. He wanted to do more than a football player;
he wanted to be real man.
The former
Arizona State student-athlete graduated summa cum laude with
a 3.84 GPA. He was certainly bored with football, a sport that
today seems so insignificant. He succeeded at it with great dedication
and perseverance. He led and set a franchise record for tackles with
224. The St. Louis Rams coveted him, but he turned them down
that summer of
2001. He actually signed for less money to be closer to home in Arizona.
Tillman
decided that it was more important to him to save lives instead of counting
tackles and money for that matter. That is going to be very difficult
to understand to our modern athletes. One of his former teammates Simeon
Rice even poked fun at him on the Jim Rome Show when he made
his decision. I wonder what he thinks of Tillman now.
Patrick
and his brother Kevin, a Cleveland Indians minor league
prospect, both received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the
2003 ESPY’s. Yes, his brother too. Neither one attended their glamorous
moment in the spotlight. Instead they went about their business in keeping
us safer while fighting in the War against Terror.
Earlier
today, the 5’11”, 200 pounds safety was no match for the coward
Taliban/Al-Qaeda forces that ambushed him somewhere in Afghanistan.
According to early reports, he did take one of the combatants down.
He was the only US soldier on that deadly fateful moment.
It is
people like Pat Tillman who we the in the media should be talking
more about. This year we got Maurice Clarett wanting to be different
by shaking the system with his early-entry lawsuit. More recently, we
got Eli Manning not wanting to go to the team which most likely
would have drafted him, San Diego. One for wanting to break the
rules because of who
he thinks he is and the other because of his pedigree. Both of these
immature spoiled children clearly not caring about anyone but themselves,
shame on you both!
Pat
Tillman believed that it was his duty to be serving in the United
States Army. When he decided to join the Army, he shied away from interviews.
He did not want to be treated as a special person. In my book, he truly
was more than that.
His death
should bring us a great reminder that just like him and his brother
Kevin, there are hundreds of thousands men and women in the military
who are sacrificing their youth and even their lives so that we could
live in peace, with our liberties and our democracy. We should
thank him and every soldier!
He is
clearly miles above of the likes of anyone playing on any
professional team today. He is certainly above everyone in this year’s
draft. Maurice Clarett will get his moment and Eli Manning
will be picked first, but none of the players selected this weekend
will likely be remembered as an American Hero.
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