Pat Tillman: Sportsman and Hero

If you're into sports, you've seen it happen. You've probably even experienced it, football players shaking hands after four quarters of knocking each other around, tennis players leaping over the net to shake hands with their opponents after a hard-fought match or Soccer players exchanging jerseys after an intense 90 minutes. Boxers touch gloves at the beginning of each round, and then hug after beating each other into a pulp for 12 rounds. It seems like competitors in every event, from spelling bees to hockey, behave this way. It's all part of sportsmanship, a great tradition in sports and competition that means playing clean and handling both victory and defeat with grace, style, and dignity.

What Is Sportsmanship? Sportsmanship is defined as, playing fair, following the rules of the game, respecting the judgment of referees and officials, and treating opponents with respect. Some people define good sportsmanship as the "golden rule" of sports. In other words, treating the people you play with and against as you'd like to be treated yourself. You demonstrate good sportsmanship when you show respect for yourself, your teammates, and your opponents, for the coaches on both sides, and for the referees, judges, and other officials. Learning good sportsmanship means finding that the positive attitude learned on the field carries over into other areas of life. At school, for example, you're able to appreciate the contributions made by classmates and know how to work as part of a team to complete a project.

In the last few years, taunting, trash-talking, gloating, and cheap shots have become all too common in sports. You've may have seen athletes who take their own successes too seriously. They celebrate a goal with a prolonged victory dance or constantly brag about their abilities. This is the exact opposite of what sportsmanship is all about. This kind of behavior might make you feel tough or intimidating to an opponent, but it can also cause you to lose the match. Plenty of games have been lost to penalties gathered from "unsportsmanlike conduct." Specifically, the recent fight between players and fans at a Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers game, which turned so ugly a police investigation was necessary, is a disgrace to the game of basketball. This controversy along with the recent trial of National Basketball Association star Kobe Bryant and steroid scandals in Major League Baseball is disappointing to sports fans like me. It seems "a win at any cost' attitude has taken hold in professional sports. In spite of this, there are many players who have dignity on and off the field and are everything an athlete should aspire to be. There are countless athletes who inspire good sportsmanship with everything they do. Then again, every once in a while there is a great athlete who is much more than an inspiration.

Pat Tillman was an American football player in the National Football League who, in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, abandoned his professional sports career and enlisted in the United States Army. Born in San Jose, California, Tillman started his college career at the linebacker position for Arizona State University in 1994, when he secured the last remaining scholarship for the team. Tillman, who at 5 feet 11 inches tall and 200 pounds was considered undersized for his position, nevertheless he distinguished himself by his intelligence and appetite for rugged play. Academically, Tillman majored in marketing and graduated in three and a half years with a 3.84 GPA.

In the 1998 NFL Draft, Tillman was selected as the 226th pick by the Arizona Cardinals. Tillman moved over to play the safety position in the NFL, and started 10 of 16 games in his rookie season. He played four seasons with the Cardinals, winning league-wide respect as a smart and hard-hitting, if somewhat small and slow, defensive safety.

Tillman set a Cardinals record with 224 tackles in 2000 and warmed up for training camp that year by competing in a 70.2-mile triathlon in June. When the Arizona Cardinals lost their kicker early in a game, Tillman cut into a conversation between the team trainer and head coach Dave McGinnis. "You know who's kicking off for us now, don't you?'' McGinnis said, quoting Tillman, a safety who had no real credentials for the kicking job. Most pro athletes wouldn't risk humiliating themselves that way. Tillman was a team player.

Tillman made a living pushing his body to the limit, putting himself through grueling training and sweating it out in the summer heat. One day the 25-year-old starting safety for the Arizona Cardinals told coaches that he wanted to join the Rangers, the Army's elite infantry unit, and train with his younger brother, who enlisted with him. Tillman turned down a three-year, $3.6 million contract