To me, Pat Tillman did so much more than make the ultimate
sacrifice.
The former Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State star did more
than just turn down a three-year, $3.6 million NFL contract without
fanfare to train to become an Army Ranger following the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks.
That’s because when Tillman was killed during an ambush on
his patrol by enemy attackers in Afghanistan last Thursday, he gave
the entire United States some much-needed perspective on
things.
News of Tillman’s death at age 27, after all, broke on the
day before the start of the NFL draft ““ a time when the
dreams of hundreds of young men were realized.
At that very moment, Miami’s Kellen Winslow Jr. must have
wanted to crawl into a spider hole.
Winslow was the draft’s top-rated tight end and could very
well become one of the best the game has ever seen. Instead, it is
the statements he made last November in the heat of a postgame
locker room following a loss to Tennessee that will now follow
him.
“It’s war,” Winslow told reporters then.
“They’re out there to kill you, so I’m out there
to kill them. They’re going after my legs. I’m going to
come right back at them. I’m a f—ing soldier.”
Winslow later apologized, and after being taken with the sixth
overall selection by the Cleveland Browns on Saturday, he brushed
off questions about his statements.
But the media and public piled on and pointed out the
obvious.
“A lot of times in football, analogies of war are thrown
around freely,” Tillman’s former Cardinals teammate
Pete Kendall told The Associated Press. “On a day like this,
you see how hollow those ring.”
But when you think about it, the analogies are there for a
reason. The game of football is romanticized a lot like war is, and
football does have its brave and courageous heroes, albeit on a
much lesser scale.
The question is, would all this talk of war rooms, field
generals and flankers be so insensitive had it not been for
Tillman? Heck, they call the thing a draft.
Let us rejoice when the only wars being fought are the
relatively harmless ones taking place on football fields.
In the meantime, Tillman fought to uphold the freedom to say
what we want, to do what we want. He fought for life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness ““ irregardless of how ridiculous
those pursuits might be.
Even squabbling over millions of dollars to play a game must
count.
So why “boo” Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning, the
No. 1 overall pick, if he didn’t want to play for a failed
regime in the San Diego Chargers and forced a trade to the New York
Giants?
Why frown upon Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett for going
all the way to the Supreme Court to challenge an un-American NFL
rule?
They’re only exercising the American freedoms that people
like Tillman fought for.
So please, at ease on sullying the reputations of these
supposedly spoiled sportsmen.
Even legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi was known
to use a war analogy or two.
“I firmly believe that man’s finest hour ““ his
greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear ““ is that moment
when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted
on the field of battle ““ victorious,” he once said.
Mission accomplished, Pat Tillman.
Leung was a football beat writer in 2002. E-mail him at
dleung@media.ucla.edu.