Coming Full Circle

In 2004 Patrick Daniel Tillman was killed by friendly fire in the mountains of Afghanistan while serving his country as an Army Ranger. Due to his previous profession as an NFL linebacker, the media blew it up as a big story, and the government loved it, considering they had reported that he died in action, at the hands of foreign enemies. Over time, the truth would come out, the public interest would fade, and Pat Tillman became "that football player who died in Iraq," to most people, and that was about it.  Well first of all, he didn't die in Iraq, and secondly, he was much more than a football player - a truth that I look forward to learning more about as I head out to the Pat Tillman Foundation in Arizona today.

In Fall of 2006, while posterizing the door to my college dorm room with various pictures of my favorite athletes, I remembered the vague whispers that I had heard about Pat's story.  I decided to do some online research about who he really was, found what I was looking for, and decided to stick a side-by-side on my door of Pat in his Arizona Cardinals uniform, right next to a shot of him in his Army one.

I learned that Pat walked away from several million dollars in NFL contracts, because he felt adamant about serving our country in a post-9/11 world.  Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that Pat inspired me, because I felt like there were a couple hundred professional athletes who like to complain about why their lives weren't fair, that could use a lesson or two from Pat.

Fast-forward to the present day, where Pat's picture remains as one of my main displays, this time on my office bookshelf. I used Pat's story, as it's told in Jon Krakauer's Where Men Win Glory as a required reading for my LDSP 210 class this year.  You can read more details here about what came next.

In the meantime, I just wanted to say that the time has come to ship off, and I can't believe that I've come full circle from a picture on my door to flying across the country to support the cause that caught my attention 7 years ago.  We leave for Phoenix at 5:15am. If you want to follow along, check back when you can.  We've got 5 busy days ahead, but I'll be coming here often to try to include you on the journey.  

Thanks for reading...