First off, excellent post sm; your post says what I hope most people are feeling about his untimely sacrifice.
As for you kimchee, you showed your true hand here. For you to criticize someone such as Ranger Tillman, and relegate his choice to serve as a trivial 'death wish' shows just how lackinig in class and character you are. He was searching to fulfill his Ego?? That's probably why he declined all but one interview(that one 2 questions only) before he left for basic. He was certainly fulfilling his ego when he left 6.1 mil on the table to stay in Arizona. Right. Why? Arizona gave the small guy with less than great speed a chance. How does he repay that? He declines to go to the Rams. That is integrity and class at the highest level. No death wish involved; certainly not a selfish decision; just a man with a moral fiber so salient to him that it obviously guided his life.
As for a marauder, and an average guy walking away from the NFL, we know he was no average guy: not with his scholastic achievements, not with the respect he had and has from his peers, and not with the way his family and friends talk about his drive to do the right thing. Cliche? Yes, for most. In this case? Absolutely not!
As for a marauder once again, that is an horribly unfair charge. From everything I have learned about this he wanted to be where he could affect the most change, and where he and his brother could affect change. He was not positioning himself to be where he could find the most glory. This is what sets you in a category so ill-equipped to disparage a man of this caliber. You don't understand his decisions? So be it. Most wouldn't have made the same choice, myself included. Belittle his decision, and call him insane? You won't need to kiss his ass. Kiss your own because right now you obviously don't realize that attitudes like his, from time-immemorial are the only damn reason you can talk like you do.
Journey, don't compare this man with someone who is filthy rich and never enjoys their wealth; the story to be learned here is that he had wealth and found the inner-need to make sure that the ability to achieve personally would be available to others.
Dr. Atkins, he may have had it all according to your register: that being money, chicks and fame. Maybe why so many of us are understandably upset about this is because he unequivocably showed that money, chicks and fame don't make the world go round. You belittle the man as a moron for doing the very thing that gives you the right to call him that, and affords you the opportunity to be just that.
Just to finish guys, maybe he was never finished because he truly believed he had yet to do enough to deserve it. As well kimchee, don't profess to know what his wife feels. A nearly unsurmountable loss for her of course, but you are hardly the person to state that she is not proud of him. Shame on you, not him.