Revenge of the Birds
The student, player, soldier and person
When Arizona State’s 1997 PAC-10 Defensive Player of the Year, linebacker Pat Tillman, was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in the 7th round of the 1998 NFL Draft, I jumped to my feet out of supreme elation.
During my draft preparation that year, once I started reviewing Pat’s stellar play on tape and began digging deeper into his background, Pat Tillman the extraordinary person started to shine through.
You’ll see exactly what I mean if you re-watch this video, a video that to this day gives me goosebumps:
There was a question as to whether Pat Tillman, as a smaller than average linebacker, could make it in the NFL. But that question never ever crossed my mind. Not when you look at the player because Pat Tillman had NFL feet, he brought NFL tackling prowess and he possessed a 14-carat NFL-caliber heart of gold.
As a high school football coach, I always recruited my players to take my AP English class when they were juniors or seniors The first reason applied to how much I wanted to have their leadership in my everyday classroom. This upset a number of my colleagues because students who signed up for AP classes had to be recommended by their teacher.
But there was one way to get around the teacher-recommendation pre-requisite —- a student’s parents could go to the guidance office and fill out a consent form that would enable their son (or daughter) to enroll in the class, regardless of what their previous grades or recommendations were.
The second reason why I wanted my players in class was to challenge their intellects and help to broaden their horizons. So often, I have found, high school students succumb to thinking they are simply average students. That, and they just want to take what they consider to be the easiest path to a diploma. It always annoyed me that “jocks” were considered dumb as rocks.
The more I looked into Pat Tillman’s background, the more it occurred to me that he would be the ultimate student to have in an AP class, or any class, for that matter. Pat Tillman’s intellectual curiosity was through the roof —- literally and figuratively. While at ASU, he used to ride his bike over the nearest water tower. With his backpack strapped to his shoulders, Pat would climb up the long thin ladder to go sit at the top of the structure where he could be alone with whatever book he was reading (by flashlight) or be alone with the stars as he so often contemplated the meaning of life, philosophy and religion.
The point is —- not only did Pat Tillman have the feet, the tackling ability and the heart to make a splash in the NFL, perhaps most of all —- he had the intellect. As today’s NFL fans well know, there is...
