Pat Tillman

Everyone who knows me knows I attended Arizona State University for two years. I talk about it, almost to the point of embarrassment, at almost any opportunity. Two weeks ago, I was talking to family members from Ireland about Arizona State, and about a guy who had played football while I was there: Sun Devil number 42, Pat Tillman. I met Pat in the fall of 1996. One warm autumn afternoon, one of my coworkers and I sat around the student government offices with a few iced teas and brainstormed the final details of homecoming weekend.

'PAT TILLMAN, who walked away from his professional football career to join the Army Rangers, was killed in Afghanistan, U.S. officials said today . . . Some members of the Army's elite Ranger units were taking part in the hunt for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in southeastern Afghanistan . . . Tillman played four seasons with the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals before enlisting in the Army in May 2002. The safety turned down a three-year, $3.6 million deal from Arizona.

PAT TILLMAN saw himself as just one of the guys. But the guys would beg to differ. "I thought he was special," said Capt. Aric Arnold, a company commander who just returned to our family from service in Iraq two weeks ago. "To me, it made what we were doing over there seem even more important. I wasn't the only one who thought so. "When you're sitting in the dirt eating MRE's [combat rations], swatting sand flies and dealing with that 100-degree heat, it means something to know there are guys like that there, too. "To be honest with you, if someone offered me a $3 million contract today, I don't think I'd come to work tomorrow.

IN THE SAME week that John Welbourn ripped the Eagles organization about a contact he "willingly" signed just two years ago, and Eli Manning had the nerve to shun the Chargers without having proven a thing at the NFL level, this country lost a true hero who likely was more of a man than John or Eli will ever by. Before his shocking decision to join the Army, Pat Tillman shocked us all by turning down more money from a winning team (St. Louis)...

Pat Tillman Jr., the charismatic defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals, startled his franchise and his family when in 2002 he announced that he was turning down a $3.6 million NFL contract in order to join the Army Rangers for service in Afghanistan and Iraq. He and his brother Kevin were in the same platoon. In April 2004 news broke that Cpl. Tillman had died in an ambush by 20 Taliban fighters. Early reports were that he had risked his life so others could live. Posthumously, he was awarded the Silver Star.

Battlefields do not tell lies. They hold truths, truths that may be complex and unsavory, yet nonetheless hold a poignant purity. For in the rawest accounts of war are the real stories of heroes. It is these tales of our men and women in uniform that deserve to be honored on Memorial Day - not stories whose facts have been distorted into made-for-TV myths. The life and death of Pat Tillman is a case in point. Tillman made news long before he donned an Army uniform as a star defensive player for Arizona State University and the NFL's Arizona Cardinals.

"The Tillman Story" has been endorsed by Michael Moore, but that's no reason to avoid seeing it. Yes, Amir Bar Lev's documentary probably inflates military incompetence, opportunism and butt-covering into a sinister conspiracy, but it also stands as a valuable piece of biography that illuminates the fascinating life of Pat Tillman. Tillman, of course, is the NFL star who dropped his enviable life of fame and lavish compensation and volunteered for the U.S. Army, serving with the Rangers in Iraq then Afghanistan, where he was killed in action by members of his own squad.

Directed by Amir Bar-Lev. With Dannie Tillman, Pat Tillman Sr., and Stan Goff. Distributed by the Weinstein Co. Running time: 1 hour, 34 mins. Parent's guide: R (profanity, mature themes) Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse

I APPRECIATE the accomplishments of Stewart Elliott. But to call him "Our Hero" on the front page of the Daily News is excessive. Every time I turn around your paper is calling some unworthy individual a hero. Pat Tillman could be considered a hero. Someone who saves lives should be given the title hero. But here we are talking about a jockey ? a man who rides horses for a living. Since when is his career accomplishments hero-worthy? I strongly request that your paper refrain from such accolades and put this into proper perspective.

THERE IS pointed irony, no doubt, in the Super Bowl week DVD release of "The Tillman Story. " This is a first-rate documentary about Pat Tillman, the Arizona Cardinal safety who quit pro ball to enlist in the Army Rangers after 9/11, and was killed in a friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan. The movie builds a circumstantial case for a conspiracy (ultimately futile) to cover up the events surrounding Tillman's death, a conspiracy that reaches high into the Bush administration. But the movie is more interesting for its unforgettable portrait of the freethinking, unclassifiable Tillman, described by a comrade as a "true American original," certainly a dwindling national resource.

JIMMY ROLLINS spoke at a youth clinic in Hampton, Va., over the weekend. The kids learned a lot about baseball and even more about the Phillies shortstop. Rollins said that injuries he suffered in 2010 - when he played a little more than half a season's worth of games because of two calf strains - had a huge effect on the way he played in 2011. Physically, Rollins was in good shape at the beginning of last season. But mentally? According to dailypress.com, Rollins told the kids his 2010 injuries had a lingering impact.

THERE IS pointed irony, no doubt, in the Super Bowl week DVD release of "The Tillman Story. " This is a first-rate documentary about Pat Tillman, the Arizona Cardinal safety who quit pro ball to enlist in the Army Rangers after 9/11, and was killed in a friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan. The movie builds a circumstantial case for a conspiracy (ultimately futile) to cover up the events surrounding Tillman's death, a conspiracy that reaches high into the Bush administration. But the movie is more interesting for its unforgettable portrait of the freethinking, unclassifiable Tillman, described by a comrade as a "true American original," certainly a dwindling national resource.

The American Anton Corbijn's riveting, arty adaptation of Martin Booth's A Very Private Gentleman stars George Clooney as a sharpshooting utility player in the hit-man game. R Going the Distance Winsome Drew Barrymore and winning Justin Long in a raunchily funny story about a couple divided by 3,000 miles and as many other obstacles. R The Tillman Story Pat Tillman gave up a $3.6 million contract with the NFL to enlist in the Army Rangers after 9/11 and died in Afghanistan, reportedly ambushed by the Taliban but actually killed by friendly fire.

On April 22, 2004, Pat Tillman was shot and killed in a mountain pass in Afghanistan. The initial reports said that Tillman - the Arizona Cardinals defensive safety who left the NFL and enlisted in the Army after the attacks of 9/11 - had died while valiantly defending his fellow Rangers when they were caught in a Taliban ambush. It was a tragic story, and a great one. Only problem: It wasn't true. Five weeks later, the Army announced that Tillman had been killed by U.S. gunfire, a terrible mistake attributed to "the fog of war. " But the spokesmen stuck to their story about the ambush, and the football star's valor in the heat of battle.

Directed by Amir Bar-Lev. With Dannie Tillman, Pat Tillman Sr., and Stan Goff. Distributed by the Weinstein Co. Running time: 1 hour, 34 mins. Parent's guide: R (profanity, mature themes) Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse

Pat Tillman Jr., the charismatic defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals, startled his franchise and his family when in 2002 he announced that he was turning down a $3.6 million NFL contract in order to join the Army Rangers for service in Afghanistan and Iraq. He and his brother Kevin were in the same platoon. In April 2004 news broke that Cpl. Tillman had died in an ambush by 20 Taliban fighters. Early reports were that he had risked his life so others could live. Posthumously, he was awarded the Silver Star.

"The Tillman Story" has been endorsed by Michael Moore, but that's no reason to avoid seeing it. Yes, Amir Bar Lev's documentary probably inflates military incompetence, opportunism and butt-covering into a sinister conspiracy, but it also stands as a valuable piece of biography that illuminates the fascinating life of Pat Tillman. Tillman, of course, is the NFL star who dropped his enviable life of fame and lavish compensation and volunteered for the U.S. Army, serving with the Rangers in Iraq then Afghanistan, where he was killed in action by members of his own squad.

WHEN ARMY Spc. Russell Baer met Pat Tillman, he expected a "meathead. " Baer served in the same Ranger unit as Tillman, celebrated back home as the football star who quit the NFL and volunteered to serve in the Army after 9/11. "We like to put people boxes, and I was thinking: Meathead. Egotistical, testosterone-driven, chest-thumping male. And he was totally freaking different, an American original," said Baer, who was just yards from his buddy when Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.

The late Pat Tillman, a former Arizona State linebacker who gave up a professional football career to join the military, is among 19 players up for election to the College Football Hall of Fame for the first time this year. The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame released a ballot yesterday with 75 players and eight coaches eligible for election to the hall. Temple running back Paul Palmer, who signed with an agent during his senior year, forcing the university to forfeit six victories in 1986, was also on the ballot.

WHO WASN'T proud of Pat Tillman, the NFL football player, when he gave up his mutlimillion-dollar football career with the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the Army? He wanted to fight the terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11. Tillman went from Arizona's hero to America's hero. When he was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004, his status grew even more. At the time, official Army reports of his death and comments by the White House led us to believe that Tillman had been gunned down by the Taliban.