Tillman a man of honor
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist
We know that Ashley Lelie has tweaked his hamstring at Denver's training camp; that running back T.J. Duckett is getting up to speed with Atlanta and Drew Bledsoe is "rejuvenated" by being with Buffalo.
But the most compelling "camp" story this summer is one you won't find updated on "SportsCenter" or newspaper roundups. It is being played out on the firing range, obstacle course and, this week we are told, in a tear gas exercise known as the "gas chamber" at Fort Benning, Ga.
All places where cameras don't go and where Pat Tillman, formerly of the Arizona Cardinals, is a month into the first stage of an attempt to make another team, the Army's elite Rangers.
You don't have to know a St. Louis Cardinal from the Arizona variety to take a rooting interest in this remarkable saga of a two-year starting safety, who, without fanfare, walked away from a $1.2 million annual deal.
And, not for any of the usual reasons — like holding out for a better contract or having failed a series of drug tests.
Around Memorial Day the 25-year-old Tillman and his brother, Kevin, a minor league baseball player for Cleveland, went to an Army recruiting office and signed up for a three-year hitch and a shot at the Rangers.
Basic training will be followed by the rigors of infantry and airborne training, jump school and the Ranger Indoctrination Program. For the moment, a spokesman said, the Tillmans "are doing very well; they've displayed great leadership potential."
If they make it — and a spokesman at Fort Benning said less than 40 percent earn the coveted black-and-gold Ranger insignia — they will receive less than $20,000 a year.
Clearly this isn't the type of decision made by most people who have graduated from college with honors in marketing. And one supposedly no established NFL player has voluntarily undertaken since World War II.
Consider that the last high-profile athlete to attempt anything like this, heavyweight boxer Riddick Bowe, endured less than two weeks of Marine Corps boot camp five years ago before opting to return to the ring.
While the Tillmans have never publicly discussed their motivation, friends have said it was related to Sept. 11 and they suspect someone close to them might have died in the attacks.
Knowing that, "I'm not surprised at all with what (Pat) has done," said University of Hawai'i athletic director Herman Frazier, who knew Tillman at Arizona State, where Tillman was an undersized 5-foot-11 linebacker and the Pac-10's defensive player of the year. "He's just that kind of a guy."
