Remembering Pat Tillman: American Hero

GLENDALE- Former NFL Player Pat Tillman did something that most of us didn’t expect. He left a glamorous life of NFL football to enlist in the United States Army after the September 11 Attacks. It would be a tall order to ask any NFL players to suddenly leave their promising careers and put their lives on the line. Tillman did that in response to Al- Qaeda, an enemy that posed a significant threat.

Some of us still remember what we did on that dreadful day in September. I was in High School at the time and still remember the basketball coach, Ray Foster, whispering to my home period teacher that there was a plane crash in New York. I didn’t think it was a terrorist attack at that time but I found about 1 hour later. I was in my English class when my teacher broke the news to us. There was so much fear that many students wanted to leave school and go home. We didn’t know who attacked us and what else would happen. There was a lot of confusion and fear that day.

Leaving a life of fame and fortune to defend our nation is one of the most difficult choices any NFL player could possibly make. While there isn’t any shame in saying no to enlisting, it is an extremely honorable and heroic decision to sacrifice such a career to do so. Tillman left all that and took a personal risk, putting his life on the line so we could feel much safer.

Tillman was killed as an unfortunate result of friendly fire in 2004. This is sort of thing we should remember and talk about during the week of July 4th.

Remembering Pat Tillman. That is something most, if not all, Americans will do for the rest of their lives.