The Arizona Republic
Apr. 22, 2005 12:00 AM
Pat Tillman would have hated this.
He's profiled in SportsCentury, the excellent ESPN series, today, the anniversary of his death in Afghanistan. And he is lauded as nothing less than a hero. It's an apt description for someone who gave up a day job that made him rich (and could have made him far richer) for a sense of duty that could, and did, cost him his life. Yet friend after friend describes Tillman as someone who hated making a big deal out of himself, someone who would shun the accolades his friends and teammates offer here.
How could they not? Tillman, of course, quit the Arizona Cardinals to join the Army, requesting assignment as a Ranger. He was killed by friendly fire near the Pakistan border; the broadcast delves deeply into the circumstances surrounding his death and the Army's handling of it.
It's a familiar story now, but it deserves to be documented in the manner in which it's done here. And if some of the praise heaped upon him is at times excessive - he might have been a lot of things, but "infallible" probably wasn't one of them - Tillman deserves all the good things you can say about him. Most of us, in theory, want to believe that we have the courage of our convictions, if we have any convictions to begin with. Tillman proved that he not only had convictions, he was courageous enough to die for them.
You can't overstate his sacrifice. The strength of the SportsCentury profile is that it doesn't try to overstate his abilities as a professional football player, either. It would have been easy to suggest that he was a great player who got by on natural ability. Tillman wasn't and didn't. As Arizona Republic columnist Dan Bickley says in the show, Tillman, through hard work and determination, made himself into an "effective" professional player. Somehow this makes his death even sadder; after all that effort and improvement - in 2000 he set a team record for tackles - he walked away from his accomplishments.
He's portrayed as the hell-raiser and offbeat personality he apparently was, not only climbing the 200-foot light tower above Sun Devil Stadium but crawling out the window of a truck traveling 70 mph and working his way across the roof. He sounds, frankly, like a nut.
Nor does SportsCentury lionize Tillman's death. It doesn't have to. It doesn't flinch from details that describe a botched firefight, and it offers the Army a chance to respond.
"Pat had already served with distinction and valor and courage," Sen. John McCain says. "It did not require one bit of embellishment. I just wish they had handled this thing in a more efficient fashion."
Journalists are trained to be either skeptical or cynical, depending upon which side of the notebook you're on. Generally speaking, it's a useful attitude.
Sorry, not this time. This time the cynics get left on the couch. Pat Tillman walked away from a great life and died for something he believed in. What more compelling story is there? It's a tale that deserves to be told again, and SportsCentury tells it well.
Reach Goodykoontz at (602) 444-8974.
He's profiled in SportsCentury, the excellent ESPN series, today, the anniversary of his death in Afghanistan. And he is lauded as nothing less than a hero. It's an apt description for someone who gave up a day job that made him rich (and could have made him far richer) for a sense of duty that could, and did, cost him his life. Yet friend after friend describes Tillman as someone who hated making a big deal out of himself, someone who would shun the accolades his friends and teammates offer here.
How could they not? Tillman, of course, quit the Arizona Cardinals to join the Army, requesting assignment as a Ranger. He was killed by friendly fire near the Pakistan border; the broadcast delves deeply into the circumstances surrounding his death and the Army's handling of it.
It's a familiar story now, but it deserves to be documented in the manner in which it's done here. And if some of the praise heaped upon him is at times excessive - he might have been a lot of things, but "infallible" probably wasn't one of them - Tillman deserves all the good things you can say about him. Most of us, in theory, want to believe that we have the courage of our convictions, if we have any convictions to begin with. Tillman proved that he not only had convictions, he was courageous enough to die for them.
You can't overstate his sacrifice. The strength of the SportsCentury profile is that it doesn't try to overstate his abilities as a professional football player, either. It would have been easy to suggest that he was a great player who got by on natural ability. Tillman wasn't and didn't. As Arizona Republic columnist Dan Bickley says in the show, Tillman, through hard work and determination, made himself into an "effective" professional player. Somehow this makes his death even sadder; after all that effort and improvement - in 2000 he set a team record for tackles - he walked away from his accomplishments.
He's portrayed as the hell-raiser and offbeat personality he apparently was, not only climbing the 200-foot light tower above Sun Devil Stadium but crawling out the window of a truck traveling 70 mph and working his way across the roof. He sounds, frankly, like a nut.
Nor does SportsCentury lionize Tillman's death. It doesn't have to. It doesn't flinch from details that describe a botched firefight, and it offers the Army a chance to respond.
"Pat had already served with distinction and valor and courage," Sen. John McCain says. "It did not require one bit of embellishment. I just wish they had handled this thing in a more efficient fashion."
Journalists are trained to be either skeptical or cynical, depending upon which side of the notebook you're on. Generally speaking, it's a useful attitude.
Sorry, not this time. This time the cynics get left on the couch. Pat Tillman walked away from a great life and died for something he believed in. What more compelling story is there? It's a tale that deserves to be told again, and SportsCentury tells it well.
Reach Goodykoontz at (602) 444-8974.