Pat Tillman, who left the National Football League to fight and die in the mountains of Afghanistan, left a legacy of inspiration, friends and family said Monday at a memorial service in his hometown.
About 3,000 people gathered to remember a man so moved by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that he walked away from a multimillion-dollar contract with the Arizona Cardinals football team to join the US Army.
Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona; Maria Shriver, the wife of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Gene Upshaw, executive director of the players' union, were among those who attended.
"While many of us will be blessed to live a longer life, few of us will ever live a better one," said McCain, who spent over five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. "He was a most honorable man."
"Pat wanted to be known as more than a professional athlete," said Chad Schwartz, a longtime friend. "He wanted to be an inspiration. He wanted to change people and to change his country for the better." He added that Tillman had "morals that could not be compromised."
Tillman's brother, Kevin, who served in the same battalion, was also at the ceremony.
Shriver read a letter from her husband who was visiting soldiers in Germany on Monday.
"I was told he admired me but it's the reverse," the letter said. "Pat's journey, that's the American dream and he sacrificed that. That to me is a real hero."
The Army posthumously promoted Tillman, a member of the Rangers unit since 2002, from specialist to corporal. He also was awarded a Purple Heart and Silver Star.
He was one of about 100 US soldiers to have been killed in Afghanistan since the US invaded in 2001.
That made him the first NFL player killed in combat since Buffalo offensive tackle Bob Kalsu died in the Vietnam War. Nineteen NFL players were killed in World War II.
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