Guess who said that? Pat Tillman’s little brother did during a memorial service at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden in honor of his brother.

Not being a sports fan I had no idea who the hell Pat Tillman was until he was killed in Afghanistan on April 22nd. Suddenly Pat Tillman was the talk of the town as various reporters breathlessly spoke of how, after the events of 9/11, Pat quit the Arizona Cardinals to volunteer for the Army’s Special Forces and the upcoming war despite his football career being on the rise. He left behind fame and fortune to serve his country and died a “true American hero” and an example of what the words “duty, honor and sacrifice” really mean. Granted, there is something to be said about a guy who’s willing to walk away from fame and money to do what he thinks is the right thing to do and his death was indeed a sacrifice he made while saving the lives of others, but everything I’ve read about the guy seems to indicate that this sort of reaction to his story is not what he would have wanted.

Pat Tillman made a point of not granting interviews to the media on his decision to quit the NFL and join the Army, he insisted that he not be treated any differently than any of the thousands of other volunteers who had stepped forward to put their lives on the line in service of their country, and it’s clear that he wouldn’t have worn the title of hero comfortably had he survived. He simply did what he felt was the right thing to do and he didn’t want people making a big deal out of it. Which, of course, is part of why everyone is making a big deal out of it.

I haven’t written anything about it before now simply because I agree with Pat’s argument that he wasn’t doing anything any more heroic or amazing than any of the other volunteers that make up the Army and other branches of the armed forces. Yes, he put his life on hold and on the line and died for his country. So have over 800 other Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, all of them volunteers. His story is inspiring, but he’d probably tell you it’s no better than the stories of anyone else he was serving with.

Already there are some conservative-minded folks out there trying to tie Tillman’s story into their personal views on patriotism, honor, and God and so it wasn’t without some amusement that I read of Rich Tillman’s comments to the crowd that had gathered at the memorial service. Reportedly his full comment was along the lines of:

“Pat isn’t with God. He’s fucking dead. He wasn’t religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he’s fucking dead.”

Given all the threats coming out of the FCC as of late over obscene language on the air you can imagine the effect this had on the TV stations providing live coverage. And Rich wasn’t the only one who used such coarse language either.

As near as I can tell Pat Tillman wasn’t a believer, or at least he wasn’t particularly religious if he was. Word has it he studied a number of religious holy books as well as various philosophers and liked to discuss these topics with friends and relatives from time to time. This won’t stop some folks from trying to use Tillman to promote belief in God though so it was refreshing to hear someone stand up and remind folks that not only would Tillman not have wanted all the fuss over what he’s done, but that he wasn’t motivated by any religious convictions to do what he felt was the right thing to do.

Update: I forgot to mention that I got Rich Tillman’s quote from this SFGate.com article on the memorial event which is one of the few that didn’t remove the coarse language from his comments (though they did censor the words).