Pat Tillman died a decade ago

I'm curious, how did PR respond to that , and having been shown to have lied, when it came out?

 

I was so pleased with the way the story came out that I didn't press the issue with the PR guy. He's a really well-respected PR guy, and my theory was that he was worried that the player would say something stupid. The player had a history of popping off.

For me, it was a good reminder to sidestep PR whenever possible.

 

I read it right after it came out, so it's been awhile, but I remember being bothered by just how smitten Krakauer was with Tillman. I thought he got carried away with hero worship at times, and that hurt his book.
It seemed most evident to me when he was describing him as a teenager, just the best friend any guy could ever have, the best boyfriend, the best teammate, the best everything. He was such a great buddy, he beat his buddy's enemy to the doorstep of death. That was evidence of how great a dude Tillman was.

And I thought he went after the military with too much vigor, almost mad at them that Tillman was killed. Absolutely the military was open for harsh, powerful criticism in the deal. There was so much room to criticize there, though, that there wasn't any need to overreach or stretch, which I felt Krakhaur did in places. He all-but accused the guy who he thought fired the fatal shots of doing it on purpose, going on about how dangerous he was, how wild he was, how reckless he was. And I thought that stemmed from his hero-worship of Tillman.

I absolutely agree Tillman was a hero. He was a man, too, and I thought Krakhaur didn't always represent that very well.

*Once again, it's been a long time since I read the book.

 

MSNBC just now:

"To those who knew him, Tillman had never been a typical jock. He was friendly, well read, and fiercely loyal to his family and his country."

Talk about stereotyping.

 

It's been awhile for me, too, but I actually read the teenager descriptions quite a bit differently. I remember thinking of those parts of the book as "… warts and all."

I perceived the story about him beating the other kid to be a cautionary tale about how he was overly aggressive and kind of on the line where some kids go down the wrong path, but it instead turned out be a wake-up call for him. I didn't think take those passages as hero worship at all.

I'm glad you explained your criticism, though. I disagree (again, with the caveat that it's also a long time since I read it), but I get where you're coming from.

 

Take into account he was a white safety and it looks all the worse. Bad writing.

 

I don't get what the white safety part has to do with it.

 

I'm not opening that can of worms. Read the stereotype.

 

I always thought phrases like "well read," "well spoken" and "articulate" were supposed to be code for: "Look! A black guy who can read and put a sentence together! Wow!"

 

People also said that about the William and Mary-educated Darren Sharper when he was arrested on multiple charges.

 

Any chance of getting this thread back on track?

Did anyone else read the article? I thought it was an interesting look at the story from a new perspective that I hadn't seen before. It gave you a sense of the collateral damage that still exists today for the people who were so intimately involved.