Sunday, March 25, 2007

Pat Tillman's Story at Crooks & Liars-link

Here's a link to an excellent post by John Amato, it links to some video of Jake Plummer speaking out about his feelings for his fallen teammate Pat Tillman. He obviously had the highest respect for his friend and you can feel his distress over the bungling cover-up following the fratricide ( what an unfortunate term, wonder how his brother feels about that).
Plummer has retired from the NFL now and I'm sure any fans of pro football will be familiar with the particulars of his egress from the Bronco's squad. At the time I recall that I was baffled by Mike Shannahan's move to rookie QB Jay Cutler, I marked it up as more evidence of his diminishing coaching skills. Now I'm starting to wonder if there wasn't an element of politics involved.
You may remember that during the 2004 presidential campaign Shannahan and several Broncos, notably John Lynch and Hall of Famer John Elway, came out with strong support for Bush. They all shared the stage with him in a Munich style rally at Red Rocks that fall. Plummer declined to participate, he doesn't seem to be a very political person.
When details of the cover-up emerged he started speaking up in a critical way, as an advocate for the Tillman family who had no problem voicing their own complaints. The protests shed a very bad light not only on the Army, but also the Bush administration who undoubtedly had a hand in the cover-up, as always.
When Plummer got benched at mid-season last year it was like seeing a microcosm of the dysfunctional Bush presidency in action. Shannahan pissed away a very promising season with that boneheaded move, and most certainly a post-season appearance. Was Plummer being punished for his views about his friend's death that questioned the Army, the war and Shannahan's hero? I'm thinking that Shannahan's actions were perfectly Bush-like. He cut off his nose to spite his face.

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