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[Christoff Yurievich]

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=ap-arizonast-tillman&prov=ap&type=lgns

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -- Pat Tillman used to climb the light towers over Sun Devil Stadium to meditate. He was a fierce Arizona State football player and an honor student who graduated in 3 1/2 years.

The school will honor the fallen hero, killed in combat in Afghanistan last April, and retire his No. 42 in a halftime ceremony of Saturday night's game against Washington State.

Jake Plummer is scheduled to be among the former teammates who gather on the field for the ceremony, the second one at the stadium this season.

The Arizona Cardinals retired Tillman's number at their home opener on Sept. 19.

Tillman was the Pac-10 defensive player of the year as a senior in 1997, when he and Plummer led the Sun Devils to an 11-0 regular season and the Rose Bowl. Tillman, an academic All-American, graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in business.

Undersized for a linebacker, he switched to safety and became a hard-hitting, overachieving member of the NFL's Cardinals, who play their home games at the university.

``I had a chance to meet for five seconds,'' Arizona State quarterback Andrew Walter said. ``Hopefully, I'll remember those five seconds forever.''

Tillman gave up millions of dollars in the NFL to join the Army Rangers following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He was killed, apparently by friendly fire, while on patrol in Afghanistan in April.

Tillman posthumously was promoted to corporal and awarded the Silver Star, the Meritorious Service Award and a Purple Heart.

``We do our leadership meetings two days a week,'' Arizona State coach Dirk Koetter said. ``When I ask our players to give examples of almost any characteristic, no matter what the lesson is, Pat Tillman's name always comes up. He is off the charts in that respect.''

Plummer, who defied the NFL and wore a No. 42 decal in honor of his friend beyond the one game it was allowed, is able to come because his Denver Broncos are off this weekend.

The school put out a call for all others who played with Tillman to join in the ceremony.

Washington State's football team will join in the tribute.

``He's an American hero,'' Washington State coach Bill Doba said. ``We're going to honor the man, wear a 'PT' on our helmets to honor what kind of man he is. Win, lose or draw we'll be part of that.''

Members of Tillman's family will be on the field for the ceremony. The family has formed the Pat Tillman Foundation to promote leadership and public service. The university, Cardinals and the family also have established the Pat Tillman Memorial Scholarship.

All who knew the blunt, charismatic Tillman agree that he would have hated all the attention that has followed his death. He refused to give any interviews after it was announced he would join the Army.

Maybe it's appropriate, then, that the 20th-ranked Arizona State team, 7-2 overall and looking to finish undefeated at home, probably won't watch the halftime ceremony because of the task at hand.

``Pat wouldn't have wanted it any other way than for us to win the game first,'' Koetter said.

I hope we get to watch this game here in WA.

 

[Eminem]

Can't do enough for this guy.


Really raised my respect level for Plummer too...

Plummer, Tillman’s teammate with the Cardinals and at Arizona State University, faced fines from the NFL for violating a league rule that prohibits the display of personal messages on uniforms. Plummer decided to remove the sticker after the NFL agreed to help honor Tillman in other ways.

“When it comes down to honoring Pat Tillman, he’s bigger than a sticker on the back of my helmet,” Plummer said.

And a great read on more of Plummer:

The white envelope arrived in a large cardboard box stuffed with hats and T-shirts, a package that looked like an ordinary piece of Jake Plummer's weekly fan mail. But when the Denver Broncos quarterback read this particular letter last week, his eyes nearly filled with tears. An Army Ranger had written to thank Plummer for attempting to honor Pat Tillman's death by fighting the NFL two weeks ago. The man had served with Tillman, and he said Plummer's actions had lifted the spirits of the entire battalion. They had lost a brother when Tillman was killed in April. Suddenly, the Ranger wrote, they had found another.

What that soldier recognized was that Plummer had followed his heart during that brief battle with the NFL over the right to wear a decal bearing Tillman's No. 40. Plummer wasn't merely sticking up for Tillman. He was doing something Tillman likely would've done were he alive, which made the decision all the more notable. Now Plummer operates with a similar passion.

"Pat's death has definitely made me a more motivated person," Plummer said. "I don't want to just talk about doing things anymore. I want to do them. In fact, we're busy with football right now, but I have plans for the offseason and I'm going to follow through with them. That's what Pat was like. He had a plan, and he made it happen. That's inspiration for me to get off my ass and do the things I want to do, and it should be for everybody else."

This doesn't mean Plummer is going to train for a triathlon or climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. He has simpler goals. He wants to continue the piano lessons he started as a child or maybe take up guitar. He's become such an avid handball player that he has set his sights on competing in an Idaho tournament for the top competitors in the state this summer. There will be a couple of road trips as well, though at this point he's not saying what his destinations are.

This is progress for Plummer, who rarely thought about maximizing his free time in the past. He played golf practically every other day when he wasn't working out at the Broncos facility in the offseason. When he played for the Arizona Cardinals, he often filled his days with activities straight out of junior high, like playing H-O-R-S-E or racing miniature Hot Wheels cars in the home he shared with his best friend Ty Hamilton.

Plummer's behavior wasn't unusual. There are plenty of young, wealthy pro athletes who have trouble finding meaningful ways to fill their lives. But the more Plummer watched Tillman, the more he saw a different way of approaching the world. The last time they saw each other was in Seattle a month and half before Tillman's death, when Tillman was home on leave. They chatted at an Irish bar and Plummer noticed that Tillman was talking more about issues around the world and reading more political books. Plummer says that meeting made him "want to be more involved with what's happening in the world and in my life. There are too many things happening to just be focused on golf and working out."

That may have been the moment that set him down the path he arrived at two weeks ago. Plummer says he didn't have a grand plan for creating a controversy over the decal. He simply didn't like the league's decision to honor Tillman for only one game. So after Plummer wore a decal bearing Tillman's No. 40 in Week 2 with the rest of the NFL players, he slapped his sticker back on his helmet after removing it for a week. He discovered how many people supported the move.

Fans offered to pay the fines threatened by the NFL. Veterans called into radio talks shows to protest the league's policies. Denver owner Pat Bowlen also jumped into the fray. He told Plummer he would ask the NFL not to fine the quarterback and if that didn't work, Bowlen was willing to send a donation equal to the fine amount to the Pat Tillman Foundation. In the end, a league that prides itself on public relations made the right move -- it settled the situation quietly without any fines. Plummer agreed to take the decal off, and Bowlen promised to put Tillman's No. 40 in the north end zone of Invesco Field and also to play a public service announcement for the Pat Tillman Foundation at Broncos home games.

Plummer would love to do more. You can hear it when he talks about the need to support the troops and his desire to keep Tillman's memory alive. But Tillman's spirit will live on. It will be there when Plummer takes his next piano lesson and as he drives across the country. It will be there every time he passes on a round of 18 holes and ponders what dream he can pursue next. It will be there because Plummer has learned to copy the conviction of Pat Tillman, which, when you really think about it, is the most touching way to honor a deceased brother.

People say the NFL used Tillman as a marketing tool and such, which I can somewhat agree with....but the guy is a definition of a hero.

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

His reasoning and commitment to joining the military far outstrip my own. I am and will be humbled by what he did. Shame on me for not hearing about it until he died.

 

[AntoneM]

I had tears in my eyes during the ceremony they had at the stadium on Sept 19. I don't even remember many, if any, people leaving to get drinks or go to the bathroom.

 

[Eminem]

yeah, the only other moment in sports that brought tears to my eyes was all the tributes to 9/11(mariners, chiefs, everything).

I just can't comprehend Tillman though. Truley remarkable.

 

[Eminem]

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Jake Plummer was among about 50 former Arizona State teammates of Pat Tillman who gathered Saturday night to help the school retire the fallen soldier's No. 42 jersey in an emotional halftime ceremony.


Members of Tillman's family were also on hand for the second such tribute at Sun Devil Stadium, during Arizona State's home finale against Washington State. The NFL's Arizona Cardinals retired Tillman's jersey at their home opener on Sept. 19.


"He would be the first one to appreciate us all having a beer on his behalf," Plummer said at a pregame gathering. "We're all here paying tribute to him because we loved him dearly, and we miss him."


The Military Order of the Purple Heart -- made up of those wounded in battle -- presented its initial Pat Tillman Patriot Award to his widow, Marie, as the Arizona State band spelled out USA.


The former teammates, some of them in tears, formed a half-circle at the 42-yard line as the Arizona State band formed the number 42 and a framed jersey was unveiled. Washington State players wore a "PT 42" decal on their helmets.


Kevin Tillman, who enlisted in the Army Rangers with his brother after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, watched the ceremony from a suite.


Before the game, four Apache helicopters flew over the stadium, one pulling away from the group over the football field in tribute.


Tillman was the fifth player whose jersey was retired by the school. The others were Danny White, Bobby Mulgado, Wilford "Whizzer" White and Mike Haynes.


Plummer and Tillman were teammates on the 1996 Arizona State team that went 11-0 in the regular season and lost to Ohio State 20-17 in the Rose Bowl. The pair also played together with the Cardinals for five seasons before Tillman shocked everyone by turning down millions of dollars to join the Army Rangers.


"Like any other thing Pat did, you just shrug your shoulders and shake your head and say, 'Wow,'" Plummer said. "I knew about it early. It's one of those things, he had his mind set and you just wish him well."


Tillman survived a tour of duty in Iraq. He was killed, apparently by friendly fire, while on patrol in Afghanistan in April. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, Meritorious Service Medal and Purple Heart.


Tillman, an academic all-American, graduated summa cum laude in 3½ years with a degree in marketing. He was a three-time all-conference linebacker and the 1997 Pac-10 defensive player of the year, an award that now bears his name. Undersized at that position for the NFL, Tillman switched to safety with the Cardinals.


Plummer defied NFL rules for several weeks by wearing Tillman's No. 42 decal beyond the one game it was allowed. Plummer, whose Denver Broncos have a bye this weekend, said he enjoyed seeing his former teammates.


"It's bittersweet because we're here for something bad," Plummer said. "We lost a great person."


Hundreds of Tillman jerseys were worn by fans at the game. Proceeds for sales of the Tillman jerseys by Arizona State and the Cardinals go to the Pat Tillman Foundation, established by the family to promote leadership and public service.

Nice story. Wouldn't mind getting a Tillman jersey myself.

 

[jecclr2003]

*tips hat to honor Tillman, someone who *got* being part of this great country and doing his part, no matter what the sacrifice*

RIP Pat. I didn't know too much about you, but youmade the ultimate sacrifice for my freedom here. Thank you.

 

[Eminem]

Indeed