In 14 days I am going to be 34 years old…still a young man by most people’s standards. In my 33-plus years I graduated college, got married, had a child and had some fun along the way. If I were to die tomorrow, there really wouldn’t be much else to put on my tombstone. Not that I’m complaining. I feel I’ve lived a good life and am happy with the way it turned out.


 
On November 6th, 2010, Pat Tillman would have celebrated his 34th birthday. Like me, he graduated college and got married. However, that’s about as much as I have in common with the man. As a star linebacker for the Arizona State Sun Devils, Tillman played in the Rose Bowl. He got drafted by the Arizona Cardinals, was named to Dr. Z’s 2000 All-Pro team and served as an elite Army Ranger. I can’t help but feel his life was a little fuller than mine. 


 
By now everyone knows what happened to Specialist Patrick Daniel Tillman on April 22nd, 2004. For those still in the dark, Tillman was killed during an ambush by Taliban guerillas in the mountainous Khost province of Afghanistan. As with all young men who die in war, Tillman’s death was tragic. However, what made it even more heartbreaking was the fact that he was killed by friendly fire. In the subsequent years after his death, an elaborate cover-up was performed to hide what really happened on that fateful day. (You can read all about the incident and cover-up in Jon Krakauer’s masterful "Where Men Win Glory.")


 
The events in the days, weeks and years after his death have muddied the true story of Pat Tillman. Whatever your political affiliation may be, you will most likely agree that Pat Tillman was a remarkable man. He played football with reckless abandon, studied the works of Nietzsche and Homer and loved his wife more than anything in the world. And on top of it all he turned down $9 million NFL contract to join the Army after the events on September 11th. He was a true renaissance man.


 
Thirty four years from now I'll be 68 years old. If I’m lucky I’ll have a few grandkids running around. If so, I'll place them on my knee and tell them that regardless of how a man's life ends, what he does when he's alive is what people will remember.