Analogies are made all the time comparing athletes to soldiers and games to battle. Comparing the offensive line plowing into the defensive line on Sundays to the trenches of a war zone is not uncommon when watching a football game on television. On Thursday, May 23, former Cardinals safety Pat Tillman shattered the illusion of the player as a soldier and made it a reality when he announced his intention to join the United States Army with his younger brother, Kevin, putting his NFL career on hold.
Tillman informed President William V. Bidwill and Head Coach Dave McGinnis of his decision on Wednesday, meeting with each individually. "I want to keep the confidence Pat has placed in me, and we were together for quite a while yesterday," McGinnis said Thursday. "He's going in to join the Army and he'll be going to boot camp at the end of this month. His plans are, after he goes to boot camp, to go to Ranger's School."
McGinnis, wanting to keep a majority of the details of his conversation with Tillman private, did offer that, "this is very serious with Pat. It's very personal and I honor that. I honor the integrity of that. It was not a snap decision he woke up and made yesterday. This has been an ongoing process and he feels very strongly about it."
