Speaker 1: Strap on the boots and scrape up the knuckles.
Speaker 2: Hold ahead, he got jacked.
Speaker 3: This is the Big Red Rage presented by santan Ford
Speaker 3: in Gilbert.
Speaker 4: Where he's gonna score touchdown.
Speaker 5: Slim to the ground by Buddha Baker Like a torpedo.
Speaker 5: He came flying into the back field.
Speaker 3: The rage is brought to you by santan Ford in Gilbert.
Speaker 3: Are you santan Ford State Farm? Talk to an agent
Speaker 3: today at eight hundred State Farm. And by Arizona Cardinals Podcasts.
Speaker 3: Visit Hazycardinals dot Com, Slash podcasts.
Speaker 6: All red Seeds, Rising Up, jumpturizing vision, flurring rage, taking
Speaker 6: it over.
Speaker 3: Here's Paul Calvic.
Speaker 4: I'm ready. I'm one hundred percent ready. I'm telling you
Speaker 4: I'm ready.
Speaker 3: And Ron Wilfleep.
Speaker 4: It doesn't get any better than that leash the fjord.
Speaker 4: A singular player in Cardinal's history, Pat Tillman was one
Speaker 4: of the most unique people to ever walk amongst us.
Speaker 4: In fact, a statue stands outside the Cardinals stadium for
Speaker 4: all to see, but very few know what's displayed inside
Speaker 4: Cardinals HQ. A very special big red rage. We call
Speaker 4: it our Cardinals Folktales Legendary Locker Edition, The story behind
Speaker 4: the saving from an almost certain destruction of Pat Tillman's
Speaker 4: locker back in the day. You know, Cardinals Folktales Wolf
Speaker 4: it's number one in the series, the story and rightfully
Speaker 4: so of Pat Tilman's legendary locker that is now behind
Speaker 4: glass outside the Cardinals locker room, essentially a museum piece.
Speaker 4: And you also know, how what we like to say
Speaker 4: about Cardinals Folktales, this Emmy Award winning series, that you
Speaker 4: can't spell history without the word story. But what about
Speaker 4: the word folktale? What does that mean to you? How
Speaker 4: would you define it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Paully, that is a great question right there, right Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, folk tes l it's got to be
Speaker 1: a story. So it's got to be a story about
Speaker 1: a human being, and it's got to be a story
Speaker 1: about a human being doing legendary things. That to me
Speaker 1: is my definition of a folk.
Speaker 4: Tell and that would definitely define Pat Tillman, someone where
Speaker 4: football did not define Pat Tillman. We both know that.
Speaker 4: We both go back to the days when he was
Speaker 4: a star at ASU and then a Cardinal's draft pick,
Speaker 4: and to this day. Look, we're both asked about Pat Tillman.
Speaker 4: I know you are. And what do you say when
Speaker 4: people ask you about the late great Pat Tillman.
Speaker 1: You know, for the most part, Polly, I just say,
Speaker 1: let me tell you a story, because this really defines
Speaker 1: who he is right here. And I tell him the
Speaker 1: story about when I ran into Pat Tillman who was
Speaker 1: walking out of a bowling alley pushing a ten speed
Speaker 1: a bike with him, and I thought it was so weird.
Speaker 1: I said, hey, Pat, what's up man? How you doing?
Speaker 1: You know? And he said hello? And I said, Pat,
Speaker 1: what'd you do? Do you write your bike here? And he
Speaker 1: said to me, yeah, I did. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I said, what do you live around here? He said no,
Speaker 1: I live about ten miles that way. I said, you
Speaker 1: rode your bike here and he said, yeah, I'm training
Speaker 1: for a triathlon. Paul, I remember that training. Yes, he
Speaker 1: was training for that. And I was like, Tilly, what
Speaker 1: are you doing? I mean, you're an NFL player. Don't
Speaker 1: you have enough challenge right there? He said, why are
Speaker 1: you doing that? And he said, I just wanted to
Speaker 1: test myself and challenge myself. That just blew me away, Paul.
Speaker 1: And yet it says so much about.
Speaker 4: Pat it does. In fact, all the cardinal strength coaches
Speaker 4: at the time said, no, don't do it. That's counterproductive
Speaker 4: to being a football player. The explosion you need. You
Speaker 4: don't want to run marathons and do triathlons. And you
Speaker 4: know what Pat did it. Anyway, Look, if you asked
Speaker 4: me about Pat Tolman, I think of the epitome as
Speaker 4: someone who thought for themselves, right. Yeah, they felt it
Speaker 4: was ultra important educate yourself in so many different ways.
Speaker 4: He had that insatiable curiosity about him. You know, you
Speaker 4: think about Pat Tillman, not just the football player, but
Speaker 4: the Pat Tillman scholars as someone who had a three
Speaker 4: point nine gpa at ASU. He was always driven by
Speaker 4: seeking knowledge, right, the need to experience life and what
Speaker 4: he got out of his twenty seven years you could
Speaker 4: only hope to get out of a full lifetime compared
Speaker 4: to Pat Tillman.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and for me, Paully too, it's just I've got
Speaker 1: to bring it back, man, I got to bring it
Speaker 1: back to the white lines, the football field, the grid
Speaker 1: iron and mother grid iron and how tough Pat Tillman
Speaker 1: truly was as a football player. I'm sorry. I know
Speaker 1: what he did and the way he gave his life
Speaker 1: for our country in service to so many others. But
Speaker 1: for me, the fact that he walked in between those
Speaker 1: white lines as well and endured so much and absorbed
Speaker 1: so much damage while giving damage on the football field,
Speaker 1: to me so impressed with him. That's my number one
Speaker 1: takeaway from Pat.
Speaker 4: He still holds the Cardinals all time record for tackles
Speaker 4: in a season, more than two hundred and twenty tackles
Speaker 4: in a single season. Think about that. This is a
Speaker 4: seventh round pick in nineteen ninety eight. He came out
Speaker 4: as a tweener. He was the Pac twelve Defensive Player
Speaker 4: of the Year at ASU, But where was he supposed
Speaker 4: to play in the NFL? So he lasted to the
Speaker 4: seventh round. Remember his first training camp as a rookie Wolf.
Speaker 4: We were in Flagstaff. He came in. He was held
Speaker 4: bent on making a statement. He was telling him, you
Speaker 4: need this physicality, you need my mentality, and he defied
Speaker 4: the odds. He made the team and then started ten
Speaker 4: to sixteen games as a rookie.
Speaker 1: And then, of course his leadership and how he would
Speaker 1: impact others. Paul guys around him were inspired by Pat
Speaker 1: for so many different reasons.
Speaker 4: We know his football career, we know his status as
Speaker 4: an American hero, and we're going to get into all
Speaker 4: that and his entire store how his legacy really is
Speaker 4: captured in Pat Tillman's legendary locker. When we come back
Speaker 4: on this very special edition, our Cardinals Folktales edition of
Speaker 4: the Big Red Rage presented by santan for in Gilbert
Speaker 4: and welcome back everyone into the Big Red Rage presented
Speaker 4: by Santan Ford and Gilbert. We are Santan Ford, I'm
Speaker 4: Paul Calvic And as we noted off the top, our
Speaker 4: game plan revolves around an encore presentation of Cardinals Folk Tales,
Speaker 4: where we like to say it can't spell history without
Speaker 4: the word story. Well, if you were to go from
Speaker 4: the Cardinals radio studio about fifty yards to my left,
Speaker 4: you would ait the Cardinals locker room, and before you enter,
Speaker 4: you would see a locker behind glass. And there's a
Speaker 4: reason why that locker once belonged to Pat Tilman. So
Speaker 4: as we look at the makeup of NFL rosters and
Speaker 4: we see long shot players and low round picks who
Speaker 4: might be able to defy the odds, it's hard not
Speaker 4: to think of the greatest Cardinals example of that. Ever,
Speaker 4: at least to me, Cardinal's seventh round pick in nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety eight, Pat Tillman. He was far from a lock
Speaker 4: that year. He is considered a tweener between a linebacker
Speaker 4: and a safety, but he had a plan make the
Speaker 4: coaches take notice. And as someone who covered Pat both
Speaker 4: ASU and the Cardinals, it was impossible not to notice Pat.
Speaker 4: If it wasn't the hair flowing out of the helmet,
Speaker 4: it was just his style of play with total abandon.
Speaker 4: I mean, he didn't just wear pads, he used him.
Speaker 4: So although we might know Pat's story, what's the story
Speaker 4: behind the locker that was seconds away from total demolition.
Speaker 4: Well here's that story. Cardinals Spoketales legendary locker. Every year
Speaker 4: NFL teams conduct their fight for fifty three. That's the
Speaker 4: size of an NFL roster, fifty three players, and those
Speaker 4: names will always vary year to year, peck week to week.
Speaker 4: But the Arizona Cardinals have a fifty fourth locker and
Speaker 4: that name plate will never change.
Speaker 7: Pat Tilban talk about a guy with a lot of heart.
Speaker 7: Passion is kind of an important word for me, whether
Speaker 7: it's you know, playing sports, or whether it's you know,
Speaker 7: just living or whatever you're gonna do.
Speaker 8: You should, in my opinion, you should be passionate matter
Speaker 8: why do it.
Speaker 9: He was pretty legendary just for being the guy he
Speaker 9: was that being true to himself, challenging people around him,
Speaker 9: you know, never being dull or just taking things for
Speaker 9: granted or being complacent. He was always searching for knowledge.
Speaker 6: I think it was important to save the locker. As
Speaker 6: time goes by, you start to forget about things that
Speaker 6: happened in history. I didn't want Pat to be.
Speaker 4: Forgot legendary locker with the forever nameplate Pat Tillman. This
Speaker 4: is Cardinal's Folktales, presented by seventy two sold where we
Speaker 4: go in depth into Cardinal's history all time anecdotes through
Speaker 4: the personal recollections and memories of those who lived in
Speaker 4: We hear their words, their voices. My name is Paul Kelvic.
Speaker 4: I've covered the Cardinals since late nineteen ninety five, the
Speaker 4: end of the Buddy Ryan era. I've been the Cardinal's
Speaker 4: sideline reporter since two thousand and five, and as I
Speaker 4: can attest, you may think you know some of these
Speaker 4: folk tale stories, but as I found out, as even
Speaker 4: team historians have found out we don't like this story,
Speaker 4: this folk tale revolving around the most widely known figure
Speaker 4: in Cardinal's history, Pat Tillman, and how his legendary locker
Speaker 4: was saved with a last second interception from a buzzsaw
Speaker 4: literally by a longtime staffer.
Speaker 6: I didn't really get the idea to kind of preserve
Speaker 6: the locker until two thousand and six. I always put
Speaker 6: it in the back of my head, like, I want
Speaker 6: to save this locker. That would be kind of cool.
Speaker 6: And I just didn't know when the renovations would take place.
Speaker 6: And I'm sitting married lunch at Oreganos and they're taking place.
Speaker 6: So I had to do something.
Speaker 10: When you know the cliche, if you cut somebody open,
Speaker 10: they bleed, Cardinal red. That's Almo. So it was fitting that,
Speaker 10: you know, he would be the one that has his
Speaker 10: finger on the pulse of that and in the moment
Speaker 10: immediately recognizes how significant this is to preserve.
Speaker 4: Before we get to that locker, the museum piece on
Speaker 4: display showcase for all to see at Cardinals HQ, we
Speaker 4: need to understand Pat Tilman. Notice how we didn't say
Speaker 4: the football player Pat Tillman, because Pat was so much
Speaker 4: more than an athlete Pat Tillman.
Speaker 2: What can I say?
Speaker 11: Just all around good guy, not cocky, very confident, soft spoken,
Speaker 11: like the thing Desperado, and liked that movie immediately.
Speaker 8: I kind of liked him. Me on long hair, He
Speaker 8: didn't dress nice.
Speaker 9: He was just such a unique, genuine dude that people,
Speaker 9: you know, weren endeared to him.
Speaker 12: He was a different kind of guy. You know, he
Speaker 12: was a flower child if you will you know. Of course,
Speaker 12: at the time, I didn't have any clue that he
Speaker 12: would go on to to come to hero that he became.
Speaker 12: But you know, he was a different type of dude.
Speaker 12: He would ride his bicycle to practice every day.
Speaker 4: Those are the voices of former Tilman teammates Larry Centers,
Speaker 4: Jake Plummer, and all started by former linebacker Mark Maddox.
Speaker 4: The thing is, if you asked Pat to talk about himself,
Speaker 4: something he seldom did, I'm not sure that football player
Speaker 4: would have made the top three things he'd say about himself.
Speaker 4: To know Pat was to know that Pat was about
Speaker 4: the next achievement, the next challenge, the next curiosity. Longtime
Speaker 4: Cardinals beat writer in Arizona Republic columnists Ken Summers.
Speaker 13: As a player just passionate, to the point of borderline.
Speaker 13: Is this guy human? I mean, can a human actually
Speaker 13: play that hard and have such disregard for his body
Speaker 13: and play the game that way?
Speaker 3: And never?
Speaker 13: I mean there was just one speed, you know, one
Speaker 13: gear there was you know, Steve McGinnis used to say
Speaker 13: that the guy has a switch, not a dial. You know,
Speaker 13: you just flip it on and it's the same, the
Speaker 13: same speed.
Speaker 4: When Pat put on the pads he used him, he
Speaker 4: was all in. Like everything else he did. Pat never
Speaker 4: did anything half speed, even when the drills were designed
Speaker 4: to be half speed. That was Pat in his first
Speaker 4: NFL training camp as a seventh round tweener, just hit
Speaker 4: anything and everything that moved. I watched it in person.
Speaker 4: I covered that nineteen ninety eight training camp in Flagstaff.
Speaker 4: I watched the decision makers take notice that the guy
Speaker 4: in the football uniform belied the dude in the surfer
Speaker 4: shorts and the flip flops. Here's former Cardinals wide receiver
Speaker 4: Frank Sanders.
Speaker 14: I think probably deserved flip flops and a surfboard somewhere
Speaker 14: in some Oakley shorts.
Speaker 2: And I had a real nice golden hair, and that's it.
Speaker 14: Like playing football never seemed like he should be there
Speaker 14: until he put on his pads.
Speaker 2: Put on his pads. A different person showed him, I
Speaker 2: understand you hit pretty hard.
Speaker 7: Now a different guy, I'm in the middle of the
Speaker 7: field that falls into the plate.
Speaker 6: Wow, off comes the helmet of the attended receiver as
Speaker 6: he gets crushed back there by Pat Tilman.
Speaker 4: Pat Tillman the blade.
Speaker 9: He knocked him right in the helmet with a forearm
Speaker 9: and just slapped that helmet off.
Speaker 12: Even as a rookie, we used to have to call
Speaker 12: him off, you know, some some practices we were, you know,
Speaker 12: just fit up on the guy with the ball. But
Speaker 12: he would come in and demolish the guys, which was
Speaker 12: a really good tactic, and it worked out great for
Speaker 12: him because he got the coach's attention.
Speaker 9: He brought that segment kind of few mentality to the Cardinals.
Speaker 9: I mean, rookies don't hit receivers in Ota days. But
Speaker 9: he would lay some wood on a guy or like
Speaker 9: put an elbow in him and get in fights, and
Speaker 9: he really up the competitiveness during practice. Guys didn't like
Speaker 9: him because he would hit you or rough you up,
Speaker 9: or do what he whatever he felt he needed to
Speaker 9: work on. And they ended up respecting him because it
Speaker 9: made everybody's level come up.
Speaker 8: He was a tone setter.
Speaker 4: Let's just say that Pat would routinely exceed the perceived
Speaker 4: practice speed limit. But that's how Pat forged an NFL career.
Speaker 4: That's how Pat made the Cardinals as the two hundred
Speaker 4: and twenty six player taken in the nineteen ninety eight draft.
Speaker 4: How he caught the coach's attention even though he was
Speaker 4: the reigning Pac ten Defensive Player of the Year. But
Speaker 4: at the NFL level, was he still a linebacker? Was
Speaker 4: he fast enough to be a safety? Pad made sure
Speaker 4: none of that mattered, because all he did was turn
Speaker 4: guys into tackling dummies that entire camp, even though it
Speaker 4: landed in the NFL's version of a coach's time out.
Speaker 4: Former Cardinals head coach Then Stobin and.
Speaker 15: The one I remember was a wide receiver that he
Speaker 15: got in a fight with and ended up having to
Speaker 15: throw them both off the field because they every time
Speaker 15: the play started whether they'd be a fight between those
Speaker 15: two at the end of the play, and so I
Speaker 15: sent them out.
Speaker 4: But as Vin Stobin himself would admit later, the Cardinals
Speaker 4: needed that mentality that Pat Tillman brand of physicality and
Speaker 4: fight that tilman too, because remember, the Cardinals were still
Speaker 4: in the same division with those Cowboys teams coming off
Speaker 4: Super Bowls and physical East Coast teams from tough towns
Speaker 4: playing bullyball like the Giants and Eagles and Washington once again,
Speaker 4: Former Cardinals quarterback Jake Plummer.
Speaker 9: You look at someone like him, who was similar to me.
Speaker 9: We were too small, too slow, not strong enough, not
Speaker 9: smart enough, all these excuses for why we shouldn't be
Speaker 9: there yet. We just you know, we threw that all
Speaker 9: side and said, yeah, we're supposed to be here.
Speaker 8: He congratulated me, and I guess he was one of
Speaker 8: my advocates. He was talking me up, So what the hell?
Speaker 8: Where are you all right? Thank you appreciate your help, Jake.
Speaker 7: He said that I gotta give him fifteen percent of
Speaker 7: whatever I get because of his good.
Speaker 4: Talk, so it might not be much.
Speaker 9: So we had that chip on our shoulder and that confidence,
Speaker 9: that quiet confidence about ourselves and belief in ourselves.
Speaker 8: So we were kindred spirits right away.
Speaker 15: Pat became a football player simply because of will and determination.
Speaker 15: He wasn't really big enough, strong enough, fast enough to
Speaker 15: play in the National Football League. But he willed himself
Speaker 15: to become a good enough football player to overcome those limitations.
Speaker 4: And it's something that Pat had already done plenty of
Speaker 4: define the doubters. A quick personal note, I covered Pat
Speaker 4: during his years at ASU and then his early years
Speaker 4: with the Cardinals. Before that, I'd known of Pat through
Speaker 4: our high school alma mater, Leland High School, in South
Speaker 4: San Jose. We were both from the Alminant Valley, which
Speaker 4: you might have seen featured in some of the Pat
Speaker 4: Tillman documentaries. His future father in law was my high
Speaker 4: school baseball coach. We were seven or eight years a
Speaker 4: part or so, and I still remember my dad called
Speaker 4: me during Pat's senior year of high school. Hey you
Speaker 4: guess what he said? Leland is in this section title game.
Speaker 4: And I cut off my dad. I say, come on now, Pop,
Speaker 4: have you been drinking more of your red wine again?
Speaker 2: Come on?
Speaker 4: Said no, no, no, They've got this Tilman kid. He's a
Speaker 4: running back and nobody can tackle him, and he's a
Speaker 4: better middle linebacker. He's all over the field. So when
Speaker 4: people talk about Pat's ability to inspire and lift others,
Speaker 4: people rightfully cite the fact that the last time ASU
Speaker 4: went to the Rolls Bowl. It was Pat Tillman and
Speaker 4: Jake Plummer. During Pat's rookie year in the NFL nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety eight, the Arizona Cardinals won their first playoff game
Speaker 4: in half a century. And my response is always, you
Speaker 4: know what, though, Pat's greatest team achievement was leading his
Speaker 4: high school to a because, believe me, the degree of
Speaker 4: difficulty there. Pat's high school hasn't come close to winning
Speaker 4: before or after Pat.
Speaker 1: Both towers so the World Trade Center have been hit
Speaker 1: by aircraft.
Speaker 16: Both are in flames.
Speaker 17: It's a black smoke coming from both of the towers.
Speaker 7: It's a horrific scene here.
Speaker 5: There are choir creers just screaming into this area from
Speaker 5: every conceivable direction.
Speaker 7: You know, times like this you stop and think about
Speaker 7: just how not only how good we have it, but
Speaker 7: what kind of a system we live under, What freedoms
Speaker 7: were allowed?
Speaker 8: You know, my great grandfather was at Pearl Harbor, and a.
Speaker 7: Lot of my family has given up, you know, has
Speaker 7: gone and fought in wars. And I really haven't done
Speaker 7: a damn thing as far as laying myself in the
Speaker 7: line like that, And so I have a great deal
Speaker 7: of respect for those that have and what the flag stands.
Speaker 4: For the voice of Pat Tillman September twelfth, two thousand
Speaker 4: and one, after the horrific events of nine to eleven.
Speaker 4: In fact, on September eleventh, Pat Tilman was at the
Speaker 4: Cardinals facility and he wandered through the media area and
Speaker 4: sat down to watch the news coverage as it unfolded.
Speaker 4: With Cardinals beat writer Darren Rban.
Speaker 8: He was like, what we do playing in the NFL?
Speaker 8: He goes, We're worthless, We're actors. He goes, that means nothing.
Speaker 8: This is this is so much bigger than that.
Speaker 13: There's probably no better time to talk about a guy
Speaker 13: who took nine to one one to heart and made
Speaker 13: a life changing decision based on his feeling something he
Speaker 13: felt he needed to do.
Speaker 18: It was sort of the you know, man bites dog story,
Speaker 18: like this doesn't make any sense. He's right on the
Speaker 18: verge where in discussions with his agent about potentially extending
Speaker 18: his contract and he decided I'm going to walk away
Speaker 18: from this. But you know, it was just six months
Speaker 18: after nine to eleven, and it was only three weeks
Speaker 18: after he got married to Marie as high school sweetheart,
Speaker 18: and it was about one week after they got back
Speaker 18: from their honeymoon. He joined the Army up in Colorado
Speaker 18: and then went on to become, you know, part of
Speaker 18: the Rangers and one of.
Speaker 4: The leaders Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell. As Pat had just
Speaker 4: set a team record for tackles in a season, his
Speaker 4: jersey was worn by fans all over town. Plus there
Speaker 4: was the business of football, as Pat was on the
Speaker 4: verge of cashing in on a mega contract and he
Speaker 4: literally left it all behind.
Speaker 13: My reaction was just I just like I just kind
Speaker 13: of had this big smiling and started laughing to myself,
Speaker 13: like this is completely believable. I mean, I did not
Speaker 13: expect him to join the army, but as I process.
Speaker 2: It, like, yeah, okay, God.
Speaker 13: Of all the guys in professional sports in the world,
Speaker 13: he's the one who would do that.
Speaker 4: Pat would leave that Cardinals locker room to join a
Speaker 4: different team with a different plan, defending his country and
Speaker 4: his former teammates. Remember the reactions like it was yesterday.
Speaker 4: Frank Sanders, Jake Plummer, and former head coach Vince Toben.
Speaker 14: I saw Pat coming out of the building, and I
Speaker 14: was coming in where the players are only go in
Speaker 14: the lower area. I was coming into the gates he
Speaker 14: was going out and say, Pat, you doing what's up
Speaker 14: with your contract?
Speaker 2: He said, Bro, I'm probably gonna go to the military.
Speaker 2: I said what he said, I'm gonna go to the
Speaker 2: army and be arranged with my brother. So what you
Speaker 2: go do?
Speaker 14: What I want to serve my country, That's what I'm
Speaker 14: gonna do. I say, brother, God bless you.
Speaker 8: I just kind of like that sounds like, Pat, what
Speaker 8: can you do?
Speaker 9: I remember getting a call from Mike Devlin, who is
Speaker 9: my center my rookie year and now is a coach
Speaker 9: with the Cardinals. He said, Hey, you got to call Pat.
Speaker 9: He's he's about to do something that you know, I
Speaker 9: don't know if he should do this. It's you know,
Speaker 9: he's giving up all this money and giving up the game,
Speaker 9: and I don't know.
Speaker 8: You should give him a shout.
Speaker 9: And I kind of chuckled because I was like, if
Speaker 9: Pat makes his mind up, he's made this decision and
Speaker 9: his wife has a change his mind, and what good
Speaker 9: am I going to be to go try to change
Speaker 9: his mind. I'm not going to piss him off before
Speaker 9: he goes to fight for our country. I gave him
Speaker 9: a hug and told him I love him, He'd be
Speaker 9: safe out there, man, because there was no change in
Speaker 9: his mind.
Speaker 15: Well, he's all in. He believed in what he believed
Speaker 15: in and believed it very strongly and acted on what
Speaker 15: he's bleased, where a lot of people have blased, but
Speaker 15: they don't act on him. And he did no matter
Speaker 15: what he was doing, whether he's on the field or not.
Speaker 9: He believed in himself so much so that he did
Speaker 9: something that no one could fathom he would do and
Speaker 9: go give up millions of dollars to go.
Speaker 8: Fight for our country. Well, for Pat, it was just life.
Speaker 8: That was what life was about, was doing what you
Speaker 8: believed and living your life.
Speaker 4: And what's amazing is as media friendly as Pat was
Speaker 4: as a player, all the interviews that Pat did when
Speaker 4: he was at ASU and the Cardinals, you can search
Speaker 4: the internet all you want, good luck trying to find
Speaker 4: any interview that Pat did as a soldier once again
Speaker 4: and Summers from the Arizona Republic.
Speaker 13: One of the things that really resonated with me was
Speaker 13: his refusal to talk about it ever. It's like, I'm
Speaker 13: not in it for that, I'm not in it for
Speaker 13: the stories. I'm not in it for a future movie
Speaker 13: or to set myself up for business later. I have
Speaker 13: my reasons for doing it. I'm not going to share them.
Speaker 13: They're my reasons.
Speaker 4: So Pat left his Cardinals locker behind for a foot locker.
Speaker 4: One more aspect of a person who could have done
Speaker 4: virtually anything he set his mind to, and quite often
Speaker 4: Pat did just that. Former teammate, a longtime Cardinal staffer,
Speaker 4: Anthony Edwards, on Pat's selfless act.
Speaker 19: To serve that's humility. I choose to serve my country.
Speaker 19: I choose to go disc round instead of this one.
Speaker 19: The more popular vote would be stay where you at,
Speaker 19: continue to do what you're doing. But he didn't feel
Speaker 19: that was enough. That wasn't satisfying to him, so he
Speaker 19: chose the other.
Speaker 4: And that's former Cardinals receiver Anthony Edwards, who said it
Speaker 4: so well in Cardinals' Full Tales that Pat was all
Speaker 4: about service to his team, to his community, to his country.
Speaker 4: I think, like a lot of media members, we walk
Speaker 4: into that Cardinals locker room, you can still hear Pat's laugh,
Speaker 4: you can still picture him with his teammates. And it
Speaker 4: was that locker of Pat's that was spared the wrecking
Speaker 4: ball from the demolition crew in last second dramatic fashion,
Speaker 4: and when we come back, we'll hear how that locker
Speaker 4: saving play, how it unfolded, how Pat's lasting legacy is
Speaker 4: memorialized in other ways as we continue with his encore
Speaker 4: presentation of Cardinals Full Tales Legendary Locker on the Big
Speaker 4: Red Rage, presented by Santan Ford and Gilbert. We are
Speaker 4: santan Ford, and welcome back to our special encore presentation
Speaker 4: of Cardinals s Folktales Legendary Locker. Here on the Big
Speaker 4: Red Rage, presented by Santan Ford and Gilbert. We are
Speaker 4: Santan Ford. I'm Paul Calvi. Seen if you go to
Speaker 4: State Farm Stadium, you'll see the Pat Tillman statute. There's
Speaker 4: Pat Tillman's name and number in the Ring of Honor.
Speaker 4: At Cardinal's headquarters, there's Pat's locker, and that's what we're
Speaker 4: talking about here tonight, the legendary locker and last we
Speaker 4: left you here during Cardinals Folktales, Pat Tillman was making
Speaker 4: that selfless decision to leave football and a multi million
Speaker 4: dollar contract behind to serve his country. As we know,
Speaker 4: Pat lost his life in action while serving with the
Speaker 4: Army Rangers in Afghanistan and not only hit. All of
Speaker 4: us in Arizona heard a lot of us vividly remember
Speaker 4: that April morning, but our nation mourned as well, and
Speaker 4: we pick up the story of how Pat's legendary locker
Speaker 4: still stands today with a salute from Tom Cruise at
Speaker 4: the Espies.
Speaker 17: The news came out of Afghanistan that an athlete turned
Speaker 17: soldier was gone. And when we heard the news on
Speaker 17: that April day, it stopped us all in a long
Speaker 17: and profound silence. And we all know why, because Pat
Speaker 17: Tillman was a transcendent figure in the life of this nation.
Speaker 4: Word of Pat Tillman's death came out early on the
Speaker 4: morning of April twenty second, two thousand and four. Fans
Speaker 4: created memorials at the Cardinals facility and in Pat's hometown
Speaker 4: of San Jose. I remember waiting a line at Sun
Speaker 4: Devil Stadium to pay respects at an impromptum memorial. The
Speaker 4: news hit with the ferocity of a Tilman tackle, and
Speaker 4: it struck owner Michael Bidwell and pull back Larry Centers
Speaker 4: the same way.
Speaker 18: It was a I mean, it was a gut punch,
Speaker 18: a kick to the stomach, and I remember I was
Speaker 18: I was standing in my closet that day, getting ready
Speaker 18: for work and to head into the office and my
Speaker 18: phone rangked. You know, it sent shivers down my spine
Speaker 18: and we realized it's going to be shocking news to everybody.
Speaker 12: I was in Dallas on the golf course. I was
Speaker 12: playing with a couple of guys who played in the NFL,
Speaker 12: and one of them got a call or a text
Speaker 12: and said, hey, man, Pat's him and just died in Afghanistan.
Speaker 2: It was a jaw dropping moment. I remember exactly where
Speaker 2: I was, like.
Speaker 12: I'm sure a lot of the teammates can tell you
Speaker 12: exactly what they were when they heard the news.
Speaker 4: As news traveled through the Cardinals facility, it reached the
Speaker 4: locker room longtime trainer John Omahandra.
Speaker 20: It weighed on us, impacted us a lot, and thought
Speaker 20: started going through my mind a way that we could
Speaker 20: memorialize him or remembering in some fashion.
Speaker 2: In the training room.
Speaker 20: I went down to pr asking him to give me
Speaker 20: a photo of Pat. I took it and had it framed,
Speaker 20: put it up over the tape table. So every day
Speaker 20: everybody that came in got overseen by Pat, and the
Speaker 20: guys would get up on the table to get taped
Speaker 20: and they could maybe this past thought on trying to
Speaker 20: live up to his standards of toughness and dedication, being
Speaker 20: a warrior, just all the things that Pat was.
Speaker 4: The Tilman player photo that John olmahundro referenced, well, if
Speaker 4: you walk into the training room today, that frame picture
Speaker 4: sits in this same exact spot, just like it did
Speaker 4: days after Pat's death.
Speaker 6: I think there's a wow factor to it. Take, for instance,
Speaker 6: JJ Watt when he signed with the Cardinals, he took
Speaker 6: a picture in front of it. It means something to him.
Speaker 6: He's very familiar with the story. He's involved with the
Speaker 6: Pat Tillman Foundation.
Speaker 16: I've obviously long.
Speaker 8: Been a fan of Pat Tillman.
Speaker 16: What he stood for, who he was, and everything about
Speaker 16: his legacy is unbelievable to me. So to be here,
Speaker 16: to be walking the same halls that he walked and
Speaker 16: to see his locker was special for me.
Speaker 6: It made me feel good to see him, the guy
Speaker 6: of his level, standing in front of that and it
Speaker 6: means something to him.
Speaker 4: That's the voice of Jim o'mahundra, longtime Cardinals broadcast producer
Speaker 4: more than two decades on the job. While his father,
Speaker 4: the aforementioned John o'mahundro spent forty two seasons as a
Speaker 4: Cardinals athletic trainer. A couple of other longtime Cards employees,
Speaker 4: Darren Urban and Dave Pash, give us the scattering report
Speaker 4: on Omo.
Speaker 16: I would paint Jim o'mahundro in this way he works
Speaker 16: for the team.
Speaker 10: But I I feel like in a lot of ways,
Speaker 10: Cardinals DNA is literally in him.
Speaker 6: So I've been around the Cardinals my entire life. My
Speaker 6: dad was an athletic trainer for the team for forty
Speaker 6: two seasons. I like to say I was negative nine
Speaker 6: when he started with the team, and so I was
Speaker 6: literally born into this organization. I couldn't imagine it any
Speaker 6: other way.
Speaker 5: Cardinal football means so much to him. Outside of the
Speaker 5: Bidwells who grew up with Cardinal football, I can't think
Speaker 5: of anybody who has a closer connection than the Bidwell
Speaker 5: family than the ol Hundre family because of the time
Speaker 5: and the energy that's been spent rooting for the team.
Speaker 4: So when people ask how exactly did the Tilman locker
Speaker 4: end up encased in glass when every other locker is
Speaker 4: no moss Well glad yes, Because remember earlier the story
Speaker 4: that we thought we knew but didn't. Well, here we
Speaker 4: go twenty fifteen. The Cardinals locker room. It's a hard
Speaker 4: hat area, not your typical football helmets, but construction workers.
Speaker 6: It's a day after the Super Bowl, kind of slow
Speaker 6: around the facility. So I come over here to Oreganos
Speaker 6: just to get a normal lunch. So I ordered a
Speaker 6: slice and a salad and I'm waiting for the food.
Speaker 6: So I'm scrolling through Twitter. I see a tweet by
Speaker 6: Darren Urban that alerts me to the renovation starting at
Speaker 6: our Tempe facility. So I freak out. There's a photo
Speaker 6: with a destroyed locker on the ground. So I had
Speaker 6: ordered my lunch, it hadn't come yet, and I'm like,
Speaker 6: I got to get out of here. So I throw
Speaker 6: twenty dollars down onto the table and I'm out of there.
Speaker 6: I just run to my car, drive down, get to
Speaker 6: the facility, run through the parking lot, run through the auditorium,
Speaker 6: the weight room, the training room, step into the locker room.
Speaker 6: The carpet is all torn up. The glue from the
Speaker 6: carpet is there and it rips my shoe off my foot.
Speaker 6: So I'm hopping around the corner to see two lockers
Speaker 6: on one wall and about four lockers on the other.
Speaker 6: There's a guy with a saw walking directly for Pat
Speaker 6: Tillman's locker. I said, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, don't
Speaker 6: cut that one out. That's Pat Tillman's locker. So that's
Speaker 6: what happened and prevented it from being destroyed.
Speaker 4: And that is quite a series of events. I mean,
Speaker 4: think of how razor thin that margin was one more stop,
Speaker 4: like perhaps or almost stopping to unglue his shoe, and
Speaker 4: that Tilman locker would have been turned into lumber. That
Speaker 4: got the attention of Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell.
Speaker 18: Found out an hour after it happened that Jim Olmhunter
Speaker 18: was walking through and said, wait, don't touch that. And
Speaker 18: so we're like, okay, we don't know what to do
Speaker 18: with it right now, but we're going to do something.
Speaker 18: And then because we were doing a renovation of the building,
Speaker 18: we look for an area where we could put it,
Speaker 18: and the designers found what I think is a perfect
Speaker 18: entry area right outside the locker room. So it's it's
Speaker 18: a perfect area and it's really a landmark within our
Speaker 18: building and serves as an important reminder for his sacrifice
Speaker 18: but also his spirit.
Speaker 6: Everybody who go out to the practice field, they walk
Speaker 6: by it. Everyone who comes in from the practice field,
Speaker 6: they walk by it. And if you look at the
Speaker 6: old foot front of the locker room, it's literally on
Speaker 6: the other side of the wall, kind of diagonal from
Speaker 6: where it was, and I think that's pretty cool. It's
Speaker 6: kind of hollow ground in a way.
Speaker 4: Remember it'd been over a dozen years since Pat had
Speaker 4: left his locker, so over those years a number of
Speaker 4: other players use that locker.
Speaker 6: Pat's final year in the locker room was two thousand
Speaker 6: and one, so every year after that, I would kind
Speaker 6: of look to see who had that locker, and I'd
Speaker 6: make it a point to go up to him and say, Hey,
Speaker 6: you know who's locker you are sitting in, And they're like,
Speaker 6: who said Pat Tillman. Some of them looked at me
Speaker 6: like I was nuts, Like what this is Pat's locker?
Speaker 16: You know?
Speaker 6: Some that come to mind, Gabe Watson, former defensive tackle.
Speaker 21: O Mahandro told me, you share the same locker that
Speaker 21: Pat Tillman had. I'm like, are you serious? You know
Speaker 21: you hear the stories behind them, and there's only a
Speaker 21: few people that can say shared the same locker it's
Speaker 21: just honored to just be in any company with them.
Speaker 6: John Fullington was a reserve offensive lineman who was the
Speaker 6: final occupant of Pat's locker, and he was genuinely touched.
Speaker 6: I told him, and he he was just like, I'm honored.
Speaker 6: He didn't know what to say. So, you know, you
Speaker 6: see guys that maybe had that locker. Then you see
Speaker 6: guys that in future years will walk past that locker
Speaker 6: and you kind of get the idea of what they
Speaker 6: might feel about it.
Speaker 4: You know, the first time you see Pat's locker on display,
Speaker 4: and as someone who sees it on a daily basis now,
Speaker 4: it is a heck of a first impression that makes
Speaker 4: for a lasting impression. Here's VP and meter relations Mark Dalton,
Speaker 4: followed by former Cardinals Larry Centers and Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 10: When you get to that spot, it's almost a universal reaction.
Speaker 10: People just stop and conversation ceases and they just take
Speaker 10: it in and there's like a solemn moment of reflection,
Speaker 10: which is really cool.
Speaker 12: Keeping his legacy alive. I think that's a big step
Speaker 12: in the right direction. You know, the generations go on
Speaker 12: and the people, the players come, and the players go,
Speaker 12: but to see him immortalize in that way and appreciated
Speaker 12: by the organization. I think that's a really good move
Speaker 12: of the team.
Speaker 19: It's a reminder as a player that's leaving out of
Speaker 19: the locker room going to the practice field, here's someone
Speaker 19: was dedicated, committed to excellence in.
Speaker 2: Whatever he did.
Speaker 19: Just let us do the same thing and take it
Speaker 19: to the field today and be our very best. So
Speaker 19: it comes as a reminder of striving for excellence.
Speaker 6: Each time a guy walks by, they're gonna see Pat
Speaker 6: and his locker there, and remember, you know, hey, you
Speaker 6: could be having a crappy day. You could be complaining
Speaker 6: about little things, and then you see that and you
Speaker 6: check yourself a little bit. Say, Okay, there's thousands upon
Speaker 6: thousands of men and women all over the world serving
Speaker 6: our country, and you know they can't afford to have
Speaker 6: a bad day. We can afford to have a bad day.
Speaker 6: So you've got it pretty good.
Speaker 4: In the NFL, everyone is looking for impact players in
Speaker 4: Cardinals team history, and that is going back more than
Speaker 4: a century. Not a single player on the field and
Speaker 4: off combined is at a bigger impact than Pat Tillman.
Speaker 11: Pat Tillman was all about team and if you can
Speaker 11: walk past that and not get something inside of you turning.
Speaker 2: We got some issues.
Speaker 5: Go back to the whole idea of you know, it's
Speaker 5: not what you say in life, it's what you do.
Speaker 5: And we can all talk, but ultimately it's what we do.
Speaker 5: And I think the lasting legacy of Pat Tillman is
Speaker 5: this is someone who did, who believed in something and
Speaker 5: was willing to risk his life for it.
Speaker 4: That's voice of the Cardinals day past, preceded by former
Speaker 4: Cardinals linebacker Mark Maddox, make an impact players today when
Speaker 4: they see Pat Tillman's locker, it says, challenge yourself to
Speaker 4: do as much with your life as Pat did in
Speaker 4: his twenty seven years. To me, that's what Pat's locker
Speaker 4: stands for, and that's why it still stands today for
Speaker 4: all to see.
Speaker 9: To me, when they keep his locker alive and his
Speaker 9: legend alive there, it's telling the players to like, live
Speaker 9: your trueness, to be who you are, and like, hey,
Speaker 9: you know, don't go against the grain just because you
Speaker 9: want to go against the grain. But if you have
Speaker 9: a feeling and it's a thought and it's something you
Speaker 9: believe in, and if it's against the grain, do it
Speaker 9: and trust yourself because Pat was like that.
Speaker 4: And there you have it, Cardinals Foketales legendary locker, the
Speaker 4: one locker that will never change nameplates, the same locker
Speaker 4: where we used to witness Pat reclined between practices, taking
Speaker 4: a snooze to refresh for what was next. And that's
Speaker 4: just one tribute to Pat's greatness that seemingly everyone has
Speaker 4: a story. In fact, I'll share a quick one with
Speaker 4: you here. I knew a guy at Asu, went to
Speaker 4: school with him, and he told me years later that
Speaker 4: he was Pat's next door neighbor for a spell. One
Speaker 4: night he got home from work, he pulled into his
Speaker 4: driveway and he couldn't help but notice there's Pat on
Speaker 4: his roof. His buddy of mine gets out of his car.
Speaker 4: He's half stupefied and he yells out, ay, Pat, what
Speaker 4: are you doing on your roof? And Pat looked at him,
Speaker 4: just watching the sunset, dude, just watching the sunset. And
Speaker 4: that was Pat. He took nothing for granted, and he
Speaker 4: inspired others to do the same. But how do you
Speaker 4: convey that, how do you pass that along? How do
Speaker 4: you honor that? Well? The Cardinals do just that every
Speaker 4: day by putting Pat's locker on display at their training facility.
Speaker 4: Thanks for joining us everyone. I'm Paul KELVC. This has
Speaker 4: been Cardinals s Folktales Legendary Locker presented by seventy two Soul.
Speaker 4: Thanks for listening. You know it's stories like that, and
Speaker 4: so many people have stories regarding Pat Tillman. That's how
Speaker 4: his legacy lives on today. If you go to the
Speaker 4: Pat Tillman Foundation website and they stayed out Pat's life
Speaker 4: and principles and service, that's his true legacy. How Pat's
Speaker 4: family and friends started the Pat Tillman Foundation to carry
Speaker 4: forward that legacy. If you go two days after his passing,
Speaker 4: it was the NFL Draft two th thousand and four,
Speaker 4: and then Commissioner Paul Tagliboo wore a black ribbon with
Speaker 4: Tilman's name on it and a helmet pin with his
Speaker 4: number forty. And there was Paul Taglibou while flanked by
Speaker 4: five Marines in Madison Square Garden, and he told the
Speaker 4: audience quote, Pat Tillman personified the best values of Americans
Speaker 4: and the National Football League. And we know Pat's legacy
Speaker 4: is personified by Pat's Run, which is held annually in
Speaker 4: tamp and when we come back, we'll bring back and
Speaker 4: talk with Ron Wolfley, who covered Pat watched all those
Speaker 4: games from Sun Devil Stadium, both ASU and the Cardinals.
Speaker 4: As we continue with this encore presentation of Cardinals Folk
Speaker 4: Tales Legendary Locker presented by Santan four in Gilbert, and
Speaker 4: welcome back to this very special edition of the Big
Speaker 4: Red Rage, Our Cardinals Folk Tales Legendary Locker Edition all
Speaker 4: presented by Santan Ford in Gilbert, Paul kelvc Ron wolf Ley,
Speaker 4: and the story behind the saving literally saving Pat Tillman's
Speaker 4: locker from a certain destruction within seconds, wolf we heard
Speaker 4: the story man of our own executive producer, longtime producer
Speaker 4: for the Cardinals, Jim al Mahandro. He saw a picture
Speaker 4: posted by Darren Urban of the renovation of the Cardinals
Speaker 4: locker room and he just ran a four three forty
Speaker 4: out of the restaurant where he's having lunch, and if
Speaker 4: he would hit one more stoplight, he probably wouldn't be
Speaker 4: able to make it in time back into that locker
Speaker 4: room to save Pat Tillman's locker. And as we say,
Speaker 4: there's fifty three players on an NFL active roster, and
Speaker 4: then the Cardinals have designated their fifty fourth locker where
Speaker 4: the name plate will never change. It is behind glass,
Speaker 4: and it's quite a story as to as it all transpired.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Pauli, you know what's incredible you stop and think
Speaker 1: about it, man, Just the fact that Jim Almahandro would
Speaker 1: be the guy, he would be the guy that would
Speaker 1: actually burst in and save Pat Tillman's locker. You know
Speaker 1: what a historian he is. He's the best game day
Speaker 1: producer on the face of the planet. Yet at the
Speaker 1: same time, this guy is a historian man for Cardinal football,
Speaker 1: and the fact that it was him who actually came
Speaker 1: in and stopped them from literally cutting right into that
Speaker 1: locker and everything that has happened to that locker. Since
Speaker 1: that's exactly what a folktale is, man, this is a
Speaker 1: folk tale about a folk tale legendary acts by human beings.
Speaker 4: You know, players to this day see it for the
Speaker 4: first time and it stops them in their tracks. Yes,
Speaker 4: JJ Watt most recently when he showed up, he stopped
Speaker 4: that very locker. Dennis Gardak We've talked to gard Deck
Speaker 4: the Barbarian about it. Have we not wolt this?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 4: He current players. You know, some are so young they've
Speaker 4: only read books about Pat Tillman. But it's what that
Speaker 4: locker says to them, and to listen to them tell it, Welf.
Speaker 4: It essentially means, Okay, can you get as much out
Speaker 4: of your life out of your career that Pat Tillman did?
Speaker 4: A guy who was barely drafted a seventh rounder and
Speaker 4: then went on to achieve so much, not only in football,
Speaker 4: but obviously in life itself.
Speaker 1: You know, I love that, Paully. That is a great thought,
Speaker 1: There's no doubt about it. You know, you think of
Speaker 1: Pat Tillman though the statue, of course, is what I
Speaker 1: think of at State Farm Stadium and the Tilman Tunnel
Speaker 1: at ASU, and you know, just the the legendary impact
Speaker 1: that this has had on so many football players and
Speaker 1: so many Americans. The ultimate sacrifice of Pat Tillman and
Speaker 1: what he did for this country and for everyone who
Speaker 1: serves this country, and for his teammates as well. It's
Speaker 1: truly inspiring.
Speaker 21: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a great point about the statue of the
Speaker 4: till Tunnel. How about the bridge and the Arizona Nevada
Speaker 4: border named after Pat Tillman. The USO centers worldwide. I
Speaker 4: know it was a couple of years ago. I was
Speaker 4: like the fifth assistant coach for my son's little league team. Right,
Speaker 4: everyone had to introduce themselves and they said, what do
Speaker 4: you do for a living? And okay, and who have
Speaker 4: you interviewed? Who have you interviewed? And I named Larry Fitzgerald,
Speaker 4: Randy Johnson, old timers like Joe Montana, Michael Jordan, Lebron James.
Speaker 4: But when I named Pat Tillman, everyone stopped and everyone
Speaker 4: wanted to know more about Pat Tillman. That's how his
Speaker 4: name resonates even today.
Speaker 1: Truly, just an incredible human being. Paully. I know that
Speaker 1: you and I over the years, of course, have talked
Speaker 1: about our relationship just knowing Pat Tillman from time to time,
Speaker 1: and the respect and the regard that we have for
Speaker 1: him can't be measured with human hands.
Speaker 4: When my son was born, actually I bought him a jersey.
Speaker 4: It's the only jersey I've ever purchased for him, and
Speaker 4: it's a Pat Tilman jersey because it's about so much
Speaker 4: more than football. Football did not define Pat as he
Speaker 4: went unto service country and his status now as an
Speaker 4: American hero. I hope everyone enjoyed that Cardinals Folktales Legendary
Speaker 4: Locker special. Thanks Jim Amhondro for Ron Wolfley on Paul CALVC.
Speaker 4: This has been the Big Red Rage presented by santan
Speaker 4: Ford in Gilbert.
Speaker 2: Number one.
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