Football fans who tuned into pregame coverage of Super Bowl LVII on Sunday witnessed an extravagant display of patriotism and militarism. That included a presentation for scholarship recipients from the Pat Tillman Foundation.
Tillman is the former Arizona Cardinals defensive back who famously left the riches of the league to enlist in the US Army in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was later killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April 2004. He was reportedly shot three times in the head at close range, which caused major controversy.
He also seemed to dislike the United States in the Middle East before his death. Tillman had also planned to meet with anti–Vietnam War activist Noam Chomsky but died before he could.
Despite being killed by friendly fire, the Army initially announced after Tillman’s death that Afghan combats had killed him. It would take well over a month for officials to alert his family that he’d been killed by fellow soldiers.
During the pregame, it was announced that Tillman was “killed in the line of duty.”
Online, fans took to Twitter and called the NFL out for whitewashing Tillman’s legacy.
“Pat Tillman was a beautiful soul. That he thought the war in Iraq was ‘illegal as hell’ is not something to hide. It is part of what made his soul so beautiful,” said Dave Zirin.
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