From the East Valley Tribune (Arizona)...
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=56061
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Letting hair down in Tillman’s honor
By Scott Bordow, Tribune Columnist
December 29, 2005
This is a story about hair. About a man who shaved his to serve his country. And three men who grew theirs out of respect for that man.
The story begins last fall, on the campus of Ohio State University.
Football coach Jim Tressel, as he does every fall, hands out a winners’ manual to his players. The manual, which is also referred to as the Ohio State bible, doesn’t teach the Buckeyes how to play football.
Instead, Tressel delivers messages on character traits like attitude, caring and perseverance.
The book hasn’t changed much since Tressel was at Youngstown State from 1986 to 2000, but there was one significant addition last fall.
Several pages were dedicated to Pat Tillman, the Arizona State linebacker and Arizona Cardinals safety who joined the U.S. Army and was killed in a friendly-fire incident in April 2004 while in Afghanistan.
Linebackers A.J. Hawk, Anthony Schlegel and Bobby Carpenter were sitting together when they received the manual. They read about Tillman, talked about him and decided to show their appreciation for his life — and death — by letting their hair grow.
The free-spirited Tillman, of course, sported long locks during his playing days at ASU and with the Cardinals.
"I was always a big fan of his," said Hawk, an Ohio native who recalls watching Tillman and the Sun Devils play against Ohio State in the 1997 Rose Bowl.
"Some people called him crazy for what he did (forfeiting millions to join the Army Rangers) but I understood completely. I looked at him kind of like he had his priorities in line. He believed in what he did, and he did what he felt was right. I respected that."
Schlegel’s appreciation was even more profound. He played football at the Air Force Academy for two years before transferring to Ohio State in April 2003.
"I have the utmost respect for all those people who serve," Schlegel said. "He (Tillman) didn’t go easy, either. He went to the Rangers, which is an elite group."
The three linebackers — none of whom knew Tillman personally — also admired the abandon with which he played the game.
"He was a walk-on in college, worked his tail off and made it to the NFL," Schlegel said. "We were fans of his."
So, the clean-cut, shorthaired linebackers in the Buckeyes’ preseason media guide turned up in the Fiesta Bowl guide with hair past their shoulders.
And how did the conservative, well-groomed Tressel handle his players giving Tillman his just ’do?
"He’d make jokes and tell us to get it cut and stuff, but he was never really hard on us about it," Hawk said.
Said Schlegel: "We don’t look bad. It’s always somewhat brushed. It’s not going all over the place. There’s hair out there that looks a lot worse, that’s for sure."
Schlegel will admit that he and Hawk can’t hold a follicle to Carpenter’s golden waves.
"A.J. and I have thin hair. There’s nothing to it," Schlegel said. "Bobby probably has all the shampoos and conditioners, all those things to give it that volume."
If that sounds a bit odd coming from a 6-foot-1, 251-pound linebacker who has set world dead-lift records and likes to hunt elk in his spare time, well, there was nothing typical about Tillman, either.
Besides, this story isn’t really about hair.
It’s about honor.
FAN SINCE 1985
