Patrick Daniel Tillman Jr. (November 6, 1976 – April 22, 2004)

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✪ Patrick Daniel Tillman Jr. was an American professional football player for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL) who left his sports career to enlist in the United States Army Special Operations in May 2002 in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11th.

Tillman played college football for the Arizona State Sun Devils, earning first-team All-American honors in 1997. After four seasons in the NFL, Tillman joined the Army Rangers and served several combat tours before he was killed in the mountains of Afghanistan.

At first, the Army reported Tillman was killed by enemy fire. A month later, on May 28, 2004, the Pentagon notified the Tillman family he was instead actually killed accidentally by friendly fire. In 2007, the Pentagon officially released a report ruling Tillman’s death as accidental. Tillman was posthumously awarded Silver Star and Purple Heart medals.

Tillman was born on November 6, 1976, in Fremont, California, the son of Mary (Spalding) and Patrick Kevin Tillman. The oldest of three sons, Tillman played competitive football. He attended Bret Harte Middle School and helped lead Leland High School to the Central Coast Division I Football Championship. However, Tillman did not always play football. In his freshman year of high school, he played catcher on his baseball team. In his sophomore year after he failed to make the Varsity team, he decided instead to concentrate on football. Tillman attended Arizona State University on a football scholarship.

Tillman was very close to his family and high school friends. He also kept a personal journal in which he frequently mentioned during wartime service he drew much strength from and deeply valued his closest friendships, parents, wife and family. Tillman was very committed to his high school sweetheart, Marie Ugenti, whom he married shortly before his enlistment in the Army. Tillman also was very close with his brother, Kevin, who enlisted with him and served along with him.

Tillman began his college football career in 1994 as a linebacker for Arizona State University. In that year, he was successful in securing the last remaining scholarship for the team. Tillman excelled as a linebacker at Arizona State, despite being relatively small for the position at 5 ft 11 inches tall. As a junior, he helped his team go undefeated that season as well as helping them make it to the Rose Bowl that same year. In 1997, he was voted the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year. In the same year, Tillman was also named Arizona State’s MVP.

Tillman majored in marketing and graduated after three and a half years with a 3.85 GPA. He also earned many academic awards including the Clyde B. Smith Academic Award in 1996 and 1997; the Sporting News Honda Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 1997; and the 1998 Sun Angel Student Athlete of Year. He was posthumously inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010 and also into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.

In the 1998 NFL draft, Tillman was selected as the 226th pick by the Arizona Cardinals, and given a signing bonus of $21,000 (equivalent to $40,512 in 2024). Tillman moved over to play the safety position in the NFL and started for ten of the 16 games in his rookie season.

At one point in his NFL career, Tillman turned down a five-year, $9 million contract offer from the St. Louis Rams out of his loyalty to the Cardinals.

Tillman finished his professional career with totals of 340 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 3 interceptions for 37 yards, 3 forced fumbles, 15 pass deflections, and 3 fumble recoveries in 60 career games. In addition, he also had 1 rush attempt for 4 yards and returned 3 kickoffs for 33 yards.

In May 2002, eight months after the September 11 attacks, and after completing the 15 remaining games of the 2001 season which followed after the attacks, Tillman turned down a contract offer of $3.6 million ($6 million in 2024) over three years from the Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army.

Tillman and his brother Kevin enlisted together on May 31, 2002: and, in September 2002, they completed their basic training. The two brothers completed the Ranger Assessment & Selection Program in late 2002 and were assigned to the 2nd Ranger Battalion in Fort Lewis, Washington. Tillman and his wife resided in University Place before his deployment to Iraq. After participating in the initial invasion of Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, in September 2003, Tillman entered Ranger School at Fort Benning, Georgia and graduated on November 28, 2003.

After completing Ranger School,Tillman was subsequently deployed to Afghanistan, and posted at FOB Salerno. On April 22, 2004, he was initially reported to have been killed by enemy combatants while on patrol. Tillman’s platoon leader, First Lieutenant David Uthlaut, and his radiotelephone operator (RTO), 19-year-old Jade Lane, were wounded in the incident. The Army initially claimed Tillman and his unit were attacked in an apparent ambush on a road outside of the village of Spera near the Pakistan border. It would not be until after his burial that investigations undertaken by the Department of Defense and U.S. Congress eventually ruled his death as the result by friendly fire.

An investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) concluded that Tillman and an Afghan militia soldier were killed by friendly fire when one part of his platoon fired upon the other in confusion, after nearby gunfire was mistakenly believed to be from enemy combatants.

Initially, the Army Special Operations Command claimed there was an exchange of gunfire with hostile forces. However, after a lengthy investigation conducted by Brigadier General Gary M. Jones, the U.S. Department of Defense concluded that both the Afghan militia soldier and Tillman’s deaths were due to friendly fire aggravated by the intensity of the firefight.

Tillman’s family was not originally informed of the investigation’s findings he was accidentally killed by friendly fire until weeks after his memorial service; although a few senior Army officers knew of that fact prior to the service.

On March 4, 2006, the U.S. Defense Department Inspector General directed the Army to open a full criminal investigation into Tillman’s death. The Army’s Criminal Investigative Division wanted to determine whether Tillman’s death was the result of negligent homicide.

On March 26, 2007, the Pentagon released their report on the events surrounding Tillman’s death. The report reads in part:

“… we emphasize that all investigators established the basic facts of CPL Tillman’s death – that it was caused by friendly fire, that the occupants of one vehicle in CPL Tillman’s platoon were responsible, and that circumstances on the ground caused those occupants to misidentify friendly forces as hostile. None of the investigations suggested that CPL Tillman’s death was anything other than accidental. Our review, as well as the investigation recently completed by Army CID, obtained no evidence contrary to those key findings.”

Tillman’s diary was never recovered or returned to his family, and according to his father, its whereabouts remain unknown to them. On April 24, 2007, Specialist Bryan O’Neal, the last soldier known to see Pat Tillman alive, testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that he was warned by superiors not to divulge information that a fellow soldier killed Tillman, especially to the Tillman family.

After his death, family and friends of Tillman including his widow Marie Tillman established the Pat Tillman Foundation to carry forward Tillman’s legacy by inspiring and supporting those striving for positive change in themselves and the world. Marie would serve as executive director and then chair of the board.

A highway bypass around the Hoover Dam has a bridge bearing Tillman’s name. Completed in October 2010, the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge spans the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona.

The Lincoln Law School of San Jose established the Pat Tillman Scholarship in Tillman’s honor. Tillman’s father earned his Juris Doctor from Lincoln in 1983.

The St Louis Cardinals officially retired his number 40, and Arizona State did the same for the number 42 he wore during his seasons with the Sun Devils. The Cardinals named the plaza surrounding their State Farm Stadium in Glendale the Pat Tillman Freedom Plaza in his honor. 

In 2004, the NFL donated $250,000 to the United Service Organizations to build a USO center in memory of Tillman. The Pat Tillman USO Center, the first USO center in Afghanistan, opened on Bagram Air Base on April 1, 2005. The NFL continues to support the Pat Tillman Foundation through its Salute to Service campaign honoring United States military service members along with other military and veteran nonprofit organizations. ✪