FORMER NFL PLAYER TILLMAN KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN
Some of you may remember Pat Tillman, the Arizona safety that turned down a 3-year 3.6 million dollar NFL contract to join the armed forces. The full article is here.

As the frequent readers of ATG know, I don't like to bring up political things here because this is a sports blog, but I thought this was well worth mentioning. Anybody who believes enough in any cause to risk (and ultimately to lose) his life instead of taking millions of dollars to play in the NFL deserves to be discussed.

No matter where you come out on the political aspects of the war effort, I think everybody can respect somebody for putting everything on the line for a cause.

This also reminded me of how in World War I, World War II and the Korean War that athletes all took part in combat. Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson and others fought in WWI and numerous players like Ted Williams, Willie Mays, and Joe DiMaggio lost years in their prime to fight for their country.