It hit harder than he ever did, and that's saying something.
The news that former Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman was killed in combat this week in Afghanistan was a stunner. Sure, we knew the risks he took when he chucked an NFL career in his prime to join the Army, but this was a man we thought would return a hero, someday have his story made into one of those made-for-TV movies and then do what he wanted to do most: shy away from publicity and enjoy life.
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| Pat Tillman defied his naysayers at Arizona State, becoming all Pac-10 and graduating in 3 1/2 years.(Getty Images) |
That stings, far worse than any helmet to the sternum or torn ACL ever will.
It's his NFL life, and the fact that he walked away from it, that makes Pat Tillman a special story. But the death in war, and the sadness that goes with it, is a story many in this country have dealt with for much of the past year. Anything written about Tillman isn't meant to trivialize what those other soldiers meant to the freedom effort.
A life is a life.
Tillman just happens to be a former NFL player, so that means we write about him. It's what we do.
I didn't know Tillman, but I know people that knew him well and they all swore up and down by the guy. I did follow his career, both of us being Arizona State alums.
There was many a Saturday spent on the couch with the satellite dish, or trying to find a sports bar to watch the Sun Devils. I remember thinking after those games about that maniacal little linebacker with the long hair flowing out the back of his helmet.
The hair set him apart from everybody else on the big screen, but the reality is that Tillman set himself apart from everybody else with the way he lived.
At ASU, they said he wasn't big enough to play and all he did was become an All-Pac-10 linebacker. In school, he graduated with a 3.8 GPA in just 3 1/2 years, again proving that when he put his mind to something he could do it -- and do it well.
In the NFL, they said he was too little for linebacker and too slow for safety. Again, he proved them wrong, becoming a hard-hitting safety.
That's who Pat Tillman was -- a fighter. A battler.
So it really wasn't as strange as it seemed when he walked away from the NFL to join the Army. If it was something he believed in, he did it. All out. And those close to him say it was something believed in strongly.
That's the Pat Tillman most will remember.
Me? I'll remember the shaggy hair Sun Devils linebacker flashing on almost every play, and think back to those fall Saturdays when he was just a football player playing a game.
