Patrick Tillman

Tillman happy after a game (google)

Patrick Daniel Tillman was born on November 6, 1976. He was born in San Jose, Califonia. Pat Tillman started playing football as a child. He always had a passion for it but whenever he found something he believed in more he moved on.

In 1996 he helped lead ASU to the Rose Bowl. In 1997 he got the Pac-10 Conference's Defensive Player of the Year award. In 1998 in the 7th round of the draft pick, Pat Tillman was picked by the Arizona Cardinals. In 2000 Pat Tillman broke the franchise record for tackles in a year with 224 even though many people questioned his ability to be in the starting lineup. He was very small for his job as a safety.

During all of this, he refused to let the fame and fortune of being a football player affect him. He drove his old beat up truck that he had since college without air conditioning and refused to have a cell phone. Before the 2000 season he ran in a marathon and completed a half Ironman triathlon the following summer. He also volunteered with the Boys and Girls Club of Arizona, Boys Hope, Girls Hope, and the March of Dimes. Pat Tillman also went to elementary, middle, and high schools to read and give talks. In 2002, Pat married Marie, the woman he had been devoted to since his high school years.

Pat Tillman playing football and in his Army uniform (google)

In the same year he got married, Pat Tillman found something he believed in more in than football, and like I said before, he moved on. He informed the Cardinals that he would not be playing for them in the 2003 season. Responding to the 9/11 attacks he said, "At times like this you stop and think about just how good we have it, what kind of system we live in and the freedoms we are allowed. A lot of my family has gone and fought in wars and I really haven't done a damn thing." He and his brother Kevin joined the Army in July of 2002 and committed to a three-year term.

In the evening of April 22, 2003, Pat Tillman's unit was ambushed as it traveled through the rugged canyon terrain of eastern Afghanistan. His heroic efforts to cover for his fellow soldiers as they escaped from the canyon lead to his death via accidental fraticide. For a few weeks it was kept secret that he was killed by friendly fire, but it eventually got out. The Pat Tillman Foundation was later founded by his parents to keep his legacy alive.

In a world centered mostly around money, Pat Tillman showed us that life isn't always about money. He could have had a promising career in football; after all, you don't see many people give up a 3.6 million dollar contract to go to war, but he did to fight for our country. He will always be remembered for his heroic acts of courage, for risking his life for America and for doing what he believed in.

Personally, I do not believe in the war we are fighting, but my hero did. The project menu's first stated the definiton of a hero as "a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life." In my eyes, whether I believe in the war or not, Pat Tillman made sacrifices above and beyond to follow his beliefs, and fits our definition of a hero.