Fantivity is a little baby website that can’t even keep its huge head up, so we weren’t around during any of the notable parts of the Pat Tillman case. If you’ve never heard of him, check out the Wikipedia page.

Basically, Pat Tillman was a star linebacker in the NFL. In 2001, after he was prepared to receive more than $3 million per year to play football for a living, he instead decided to enlist in the U.S. Army, joining the elite Ranger division. He specifically wanted to help in the military actions in Afghanistan, citing September 11th as his motivation for enlisting.

Tillman was the highest of high profile citizens in either Afghanistan or Iraq (since then, Prince Harry of England probably beats out Tillman). After serving overseas hunting down Al-Qaeda, reports came back that Tillman had died in combat.

The story of what actually happened came out in bits and pieces. The country was told that he died in a firefight with the enemy. Then stories came back from soldiers who were there that he, in fact, was not killed by enemy combatants, but rather by members of his own Ranger unit. There were congressional hearings, investigations, cover-ups, conspiracies, you name it. The country and Tillman’s family were led to believe that Pat died like this scene from 300. However, the actual details of the event are much more disturbing, like Lt. Lyons’ death in Platoon.