A Man's Man

"You can red shirt me or you can play me. It's your choice, but I am not going to be around after four years, I have a life to live."
ASU Coach Bruce Snyner was told this by Pat Tillman when he suggested that Tillman was not big enough, tall enough or fast enough to make the team as a freshman.

I think everyone by now has become familiar with Pat Tillman and what an extraordinary life he lived.

Pat Tillman was not motivated by football or money or cheering fans, but by life and it's deep meaning. He was in search of something and wanted to make a difference and a contribution to the world...........and boy did he ever.

Here we have a very smart guy, graduated summa cum laude in 3 1/2 years with an impressive 3.84 GPA in marketing and finance, and a 3.6 million dollar contract to play in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals. He was different.... climbing the light towers at Sun Devil Stadium 200 feet in the air to study and meditate, ran a marathon just "see what it would be like", then ran a 70 mile triathalon as a warm-up to 2001 NFL season, rode his bicycle to practice for the Arizona Cardinals while all of the other players drove to practice in their massive SUV's and luxury cars. Yet he decided to give that up to pursue the terrorists that invaded our country on September 11, 2001.

Good for us.....bad for the terrorists. Unfortunately he was killed by friendly fire in a confusing battle in the middle of the night. With an investigation underway to uncover what really happened, it appears there may be more to this event that what was previously reported.

I for one would hope that this is something that is kept between the military and Tillman's family. Of course it is painful to lose someone, but I don't know if WE really need to find out all of the details. If there were mistakes, then correct them, war is hell and very crazy.

I got to see him play at ASU and with the Arizona Cardinals, he was the most exciting player to watch, he led the team in tackles in 2000 and would just flat out knock the crap out of anyone in his way. After he laid guys out on the football field, he was the first one there help them back up...he was awesome.

I think most people want to remember Pat Tillman as a guy who bled red, white and blue and died heroically for his country. I believe he touched everyone and instilled a great sense of patriotic pride in us.......maybe that was his purpose here on earth.

Pat Tillman will never be forgotten, let's just hope this investigation will be kept under wraps to an extent and not smear the great things that he brought to the USA.