Friday, Dec. 5, 2003 | 10:08 a.m.
Even Pat Tillman's former college coach isn't quite certain about the wide blur that separates fact from fiction, even myth, about the NFLer-turned-Army Ranger.
"Someone said he was part of the Jessica Lynch retrieval," said UNLV assistant coach Bruce Snyder, who recruited and coached Tillman at Arizona State.
Given a playbook by the Arizona Cardinals after they had picked him in the seventh round of the 1998 draft, Tillman was told to know its contents inside and out by the time he reported to rookie training camp in a month.
Not only was Tillman the only one who had memorized it, he had highlighted all of its misspellings and contradictions, like the curl instruction 10 pages after being told to play "flat" in the same situation.
Early, as usual, to his first full team meeting with the Cardinals, Tillman sat front and center. After a while, a veteran moseyed over to Tillman, telling him he was in the vet's seat.
"According to legend, Pat sat there for a moment, closed his book, looked back up and said, 'You're going to have to kick my butt to get me out of this seat,' " Snyder said. "He said it loud enough for the entire room to hear. It stunned the veteran. He turned and found another seat.
"That's a movie, isn't it?"
Around these holidays, Tillman's courage and commitment to country should be commended and remembered.
For a second consecutive season, NFL wide receivers and running backs haven't had to worry about Tillman, who led the team with 155 tackles in '00.
For much of the past year, Pat, who turned 27 a month ago, and brother Kevin, who played baseball for the Sun Devils and in Cleveland's organization, have served as elite Rangers in combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
They were selected to spend much of the summer in an exclusive training regimen in Tacoma, Wash. In July, Richard Tillman accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, from actor Keifer Sutherland, at the ESPY Awards on his older brother's behalf.
"The boys (weren't) too pleased about the ESPY thing, but I am," said their father, Patrick Tillman Sr. "I'm very happy about it. I'm proud."
Snyder said giving Tillman one of the last scholarships of his 1994 class was one of the best decisions of his life. He ranks Tillman, the Pac-10 Conference defensive player of the year as a senior, among the five most impressive people he has ever met.
"Everyone missed on him," Snyder said of the scant colleges that recruited Tillman, "and we were close to missing on him."
Snyder overlooked Tillman's beach-like Dude lingo and easily gravitated toward him, recognizing his mettle, moxie and maturity. Tillman wore long hair at ASU, and as a Cardinal, which bothered others but not Snyder.
"We found a way for Pat to be Pat, knowing he wouldn't abuse it," Snyder said. "People asked, 'How can you let him (wear his hair long)?' I just said, 'Let me coach my team. I got a special guy.' He never varied. He was never phony."
As a freshman, Tillman told Snyder he wouldn't redshirt. Not to put pressure on Snyder to play him, though. He told Snyder that he had things to do and he would be out of ASU in four years, if not sooner.
Tillman graduated, with a degree in marketing and a 3.84 grade-point average, in 3 1/2 years.
Moreover, Snyder said the vast majority of freshmen enter college overwhelmed by the transition, bureaucracy and confusion. Academic advisers on ASU's support staff are crucial rudders.
After Tillman's second meeting with one such adviser, however, he told Snyder he'd be advising himself. Tillman vowed that he would always be eligible and would graduate on time.
"A lot of kids aren't capable of doing that, as per NCAA rules and progressions," Snyder said. "He"s just tremendously independent and bright, and he has great integrity. To do what he did ... people always ask me."
Since signing up for a three-year hitch, after the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, Pat Tillman, who ducked media attention by enlisting in Denver, has implored family and friends not to comment. The Army has shielded him from media.
The Orlando Sentinel called Pat the most unique pro athlete in modern American history. He is believed to be the first NFL regular to leave the game for military service since World War II, when 1,000 players served and 23 were killed.
"The quintessential definition of a patriot," said John McCain, an Arizona senator.
The Tillmans eventually became part of the second battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment. To Pat Tillman, a newlywed who had recently returned from a Bora Bora honeymoon, that meant turning his back on a three-year, $3.6-million deal with the Cardinals.
After that stellar 2000 season, he turned down a $9 million offer -- out of loyalty to the team that drafted him -- from the St. Louis Rams.
As a pro football player, Tillman bucked the image by driving a simple Jeep Cherokee and shunned having a cell phone. He earns about $1,400 a month as a Ranger.
"He told me it was a lot of things," Cardinals assistant coach Larry Marmie told the Arizona Republic. "It was something he thought about for a long time. He felt he had lived a very comfortable life ... and he needed to pay someone back.
"He felt that he was in debt to somebody for the kind of life he had up to 'this' point."
One summer, Tillman ran a marathon. Not tested enough, he took part in a triathlon the next summer. He has back-flipped off a 50-foot cliff, and meditated atop a 200-foot light tower at Sun Devil Stadium.
"He'll kayak down the most vicious river," Snyder said. "He is a risk-taker. He has a strong sense of invulnerability. Physical issues are not a concern."
Taking orders or being advised by anyone were other matters.
"That was the one thing I was curious about, whether Pat would be able to conform to the culture and environment of a very rigid life," Snyder said. "To Pat, if something was stupid, you'd hear about it.
"In the Special Forces, you would think he'd have to follow orders without asking questions, in a lot of cases. I wondered if he ">d make it through that part of it. It appears he has."
The Republic has already suggested that the Cardinals pay tribute to Tillman, in some way, when they open their new $355 million Glendale stadium in 2006. Pat Tillman Field?
That would only be sweeter if the man himself were there to play on the turf that might bear his name.
"The Army is very secretive about its deployments," Snyder said. "Yeah, he's in my thoughts and prayers, because I know he's in harm's way a lot. But you know what? If they said we need one man to go find (Osama) Bin Laden, there would not be a better guy.
"I would be afraid, if I were Bin Laden."
By 7 yards.
After extrapolating who's picking up or slowing down, strength of rushing defenses against the next four foes and other factors, we tab Lewis with a final yardage figure of 1,877 and McAllister at 1,870.
Lewis is currently at 1,442, McAllister 1,393.
Ahman Green of Green Bay wasn't helped by his poor outing (57 yards) at Detroit on Thanksgiving, nor will he be helped by a regular-season finale against ground-stingy Denver. Currently at 1,383 yards, we figure Green will end with 1,840.
Lewis will finish with the highest rushing total since Terrell Davis of Denver scampered for 2,008 yards in 1998.
The latest numbers at Green Valley Ranch Station Casino pits the Chiefs at 2-1 to win the AFC title and 4-1 to win the Super Bowl, while the Rams are at 7-2 and 7-1, respectively.
By the way, the Chiefs have never lost to the St. Louis Rams, going 3-0 against the Los Angeles transplants. Kansas City won by 20 in 2000 and by 39 in '02. Both were at Arrowhead Stadium.
Division hits
NFC: West -- An offshore book in Costa Rica tabs Arizona WR Anquan Boldin at even money to win NFL rookie of the year. Houston RB Domanick Davis is next at +200. South. -- Usually dependable Carolina K John Kasay has missed six of his last 10 field goals, including three (and a PAT) last week. North -- Of books, bobbleheads and any other money-making venture, who doubts why Barry Sanders now loves the Lions? East -- The longest run Dallas has allowed this season was 21 yards, the stingiest figure in the league.
AFC: West -- Heading into Sunday's game in Denver, Kansas City WR Eddie Kennison, a former Bronco, unwisely blasted his former team. South -- Georgia Tech rookie Tony Hollings is gimpy Houston QB David Carr's backup in Jacksonville. North -- Cincinnati is the lone NFL team to play three in a row on the road this season, and it can go 3-0 in the hat trick Sunday in Baltimore. East -- Bronx native and Jets safety Sam Garnes has quietly started all 102 games of his seven-year career for either the hometown Giants or Jets.
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