Of sports and soldiers
Get to know me and you’ll find out, I’m a weird kind of guy.
To name of a few of my idiosyncrasies: I own footy pajamas. You
know the kind you rocked when you were six, complete with treaded
soles and a zipper along the front? Yeah, I own a pair.
Whales scare the poop out of me. I freak out when the whale pops
out of the water in “Castaway” and I can’t look at pictures of them
or I get all shaky.
I wear my hat to the tilt, not because I’m cool, but because I
have a misshaped head.
But most of all I’m odd because too often my priorities get all
out of whack.
The other night while enjoying a $2 pizza at Old C’s someone
asked me about the NFL draft and my heart lit up. I was so excited
to enlighten someone on the Eli Manning drama.
“You see,” I began, as the sports Guru of the table, “Eli said
he didn’t want to play for San Diego, but would prefer to play in
New York, but San Diego had the first pick, but they wanted to
trade it, but then they drafted him, but then, but blah blah
blah”
When I got home that night I began to ask myself some questions.
Why are sports so important to me? Why was explaining that
situation so enthralling?
You see, like so many hot-dog eatin’ sports fanatics, I lose
sight of a lot of truths out there. I start thinking about the Red
Sox’s latest romp over the Yanks and how Mike Vick is Clark Kent
and I lose sight of guys like Pat Tillman.
I lose sight of his brothers and sisters in arms protecting
freedom.
Tillman died on Thursday while serving for the military in
Afghanistan. Though he desired to fit in and not stick out, you
couldn’t help but notice him. His service was no more honorable,
his life no more valuable, but he definitely stuck out.
Tillman left a $3.6 million NFL contract behind and joined the
armed forces. Much like his style of play for the Arizona
Cardinals, Tillman went all out. He became an Army Ranger.
He didn’t whine about which team drafted him, he didn’t hold out
for a bigger contract, he quit football to serve the country he
loved. He turned down millions to serve you.
Whether you agree or disagree with America’s military actions,
it’s tough to deny that our soldiers are overlooked heroes.
People like Pat Tillman remind me that not everyone is as weird
as I am.
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