Big Red Rage - Why Pat Tillman's Locker Still Stands At Cardinals HQ

Ep. 775 - In this special edition of The Big Red Rage, Paul Calvisi and Ron Wolfley explore the remarkable legacy of Pat Tillman and the incredible true story of how his locker was saved from destruction and preserved as a permanent tribute inside Cardinals headquarters. Featuring firsthand accounts from teammates, coaches, executives, and those who knew Tillman best, the episode celebrates his relentless drive, selfless nature, and enduring impact on the Cardinals, the NFL, and the nation he served.

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Speaker 5: All red scens, Rising Up, jimp your rising vision flurry rage.

Speaker 1: Take it Ober.

Speaker 2: Here's Paul Calvic. I'm ready.

Speaker 4: I'm one hundred percent ready. I'm telling you I'm ready.

Speaker 2: And Ron Wolfley.

Speaker 6: It doesn't get any better than that.

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 Tillman'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, PAULI, that is a great question right there. Right Well,

Speaker 1: first of all, folk tale, it's got to be a story,

Speaker 1: So it's got to be a story about a human being,

Speaker 1: and it's got to be a story about a human

Speaker 1: being doing legendary things. That to me is my definition

Speaker 1: of a folk.

Speaker 4: Telling 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? Did you ride your bike here? And

Speaker 1: he said to me, yeah, I did. As a matter

Speaker 1: of fact, I said, what do you live around here?

Speaker 1: He said no, I live about ten miles that way.

Speaker 1: I said, you rode your bike here and he said, yeah,

Speaker 1: I'm training for a triathlon. Paul, I remember that training. Yes,

Speaker 1: he was training for that. And I was like, Tilly,

Speaker 1: what are you doing. I mean, you're an NFL player.

Speaker 1: Don't you have enough challenge right there? He said, why

Speaker 1: are you doing that? And he said, I just wanted

Speaker 1: to test myself and challenge myself. That just blew me away, Paul,

Speaker 1: And yet it says so much about Pat he does.

Speaker 4: In fact, all the Cardinals strength coaches at the time said, no,

Speaker 4: don't do it. That's counterproductive to being a football player.

Speaker 4: The explosion you need. You don't want to run marathons

Speaker 4: and do triathons, and you know what Pat did it. Anyway, Look,

Speaker 4: if you asked me about Pat Tolman, I think of

Speaker 4: the epitome as someone who thought for themselves, right, Yeah,

Speaker 4: They felt it was ultra important to educate yourself in

Speaker 4: so many different ways. He had that insatiable curiosity about him.

Speaker 4: You know, you think about Pat Tillman, not just the

Speaker 4: football player, but the Pat Tillman scholars as someone who

Speaker 4: had a three point nine gpa at ASU. He was

Speaker 4: always driven by seeking knowledge, right, the need to experience

Speaker 4: life and what he got out of his twenty seven

Speaker 4: years you could only hope to get out of a

Speaker 4: full lifetime compared 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 story, 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 Emergency Air, and welcome

Speaker 4: back everyone into the Big Red Rage presented by Emergency Air.

Speaker 4: I'm Paul Calvic And as we noted off the top,

Speaker 4: our game plan revolves around an encore presentation of Cardinals Folktales,

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 at 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 Tillman. 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's considered a tweener between a linebacker and

Speaker 4: a safety, but he had a plan make the coaches

Speaker 4: take notice. And as someone who covered Pat both ASU

Speaker 4: and the Cardinals, it was impossible not to notice Pat.

Speaker 4: If it wasn't the hair blowing 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 storing, what's the story

Speaker 4: behind the locker that was seconds away from total demolition?

Speaker 4: Well here's that story, Cardinals' Full Tales 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, heck, 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.

Speaker 1: With a lot of heart.

Speaker 8: Passion is kind of an important word for me. Whether

Speaker 8: it's you know, playing sports, or whether it's you know,

Speaker 8: just living or whatever you're gonna do, you should, in

Speaker 8: my opinion, you should be passionate about or else why

Speaker 8: 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 granted,

Speaker 9: or being complacent. He was always searching for knowledge.

Speaker 10: I think it was important to save the locker.

Speaker 11: As time goes by, you start to forget about things

Speaker 11: that happened in history.

Speaker 10: I didn't want Pat to be forgotten.

Speaker 4: Legendary locker with the forever nameplate Pat Tillman. This is

Speaker 4: Cardinal's Folktales, presented by seventy two sold where we go

Speaker 4: in depth into Cardinals history all time anecdotes through the

Speaker 4: personal recollections and memories of those who lived in We

Speaker 4: hear their words, their voices. My name is Paul Calvic.

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: folktale stories. But as I found out, as even team

Speaker 4: historians have found out, we don't like this story. This

Speaker 4: folk tale revolving around the most widely known figure in

Speaker 4: Cardinal's history, Pat Tillman, and how his legendary locker was

Speaker 4: saved with a last second interception from a buzzsaw literally

Speaker 4: by a longtime staffer.

Speaker 11: I didn't really get the idea to kind of preserve

Speaker 11: the locker until two thousand and six. I always put

Speaker 11: it in the back of my head, like, I want

Speaker 11: to save this locker.

Speaker 10: That would be kind of cool.

Speaker 11: And I just didn't know when renovations would take place.

Speaker 11: And I'm sitting marrying lunch at Oreganos and they're taking place,

Speaker 11: So I.

Speaker 10: Had to do something.

Speaker 12: When you know the cliche, if you cut somebody open,

Speaker 12: they bleed cardinal red. That's that's almost so it was

Speaker 12: fitting that, you know, he would be the one that

Speaker 12: has his finger on the pulse of that and in

Speaker 12: the moment 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 Tillman. Notice how we didn't say

Speaker 4: the football player Pat Tillman, because Pat was so much

Speaker 4: more than an athlete.

Speaker 13: Pat Tillman, what can I say? Just all around good guy,

Speaker 13: not cocky, very confident, soft spoken, like the sing Desperado

Speaker 13: and liked that movie immediately.

Speaker 9: I kind of liked him. Had long hair, he didn't

Speaker 9: dress nice. He was just such a unique, genuine dude

Speaker 9: that people, you know, weren endeared to him.

Speaker 7: He was a different kind of guy. You know, he

Speaker 7: was a flower child if you will.

Speaker 1: You know.

Speaker 7: Of course, at the time, I didn't have any clue

Speaker 7: that he would go on to to come.

Speaker 1: To hero that he became.

Speaker 7: But you know, he was a different type of dude.

Speaker 7: He would ride his bicycle to practice every day.

Speaker 4: Those are the voices of former Tillman 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 14: As a player just passionate to the point of borderline?

Speaker 14: Is this guy human? I mean, can of human actually

Speaker 14: play that hard and have such disregard for his body

Speaker 14: and play the game that way and never I mean

Speaker 14: there was just one speed, you know, one gear there was.

Speaker 14: You know, Steve McGinnis used to say that the guy

Speaker 14: has a switch, not a dial. You know, you just

Speaker 14: flip it on and it's the same, the 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 15: I think Pat probably deserved flip flops, a surfboard somewhere

Speaker 15: in some Oakley shorts, and I had a real nice

Speaker 15: golden hair.

Speaker 7: And that's it.

Speaker 15: Like playing football. Never seemed like he should be there

Speaker 15: until he put on his pads. Put on his pads.

Speaker 15: A different person showed him.

Speaker 16: I understand, you hit pretty hard.

Speaker 13: Now, guy, I'm in the middle of.

Speaker 10: The finger that falls into the plate.

Speaker 2: Wow, off comes the helmet of the attended receiver as

Speaker 2: he gets crushed back there by Pat Tillman.

Speaker 1: Pat Tillman the blade.

Speaker 13: He knocked him right in the helmet with a forearm

Speaker 13: and just slapped that helmet off.

Speaker 7: Even as a rookie, we used to have to call

Speaker 7: him off, you know some some practices we were you know,

Speaker 7: just fit up on the guy with the ball. But

Speaker 7: he would come in and demolish the guys, which was

Speaker 7: a really good tactic and it worked out great for

Speaker 7: him because he got the coach's attention.

Speaker 9: He brought that scene kind of few mentality to the carginals.

Speaker 9: I mean, rookies don't hit receivers in Ota days.

Speaker 1: But he would lay some.

Speaker 9: Wood on a guy or like put an elbow in

Speaker 9: him and get in fights. And he really up the

Speaker 9: competitiveness during practice where guys didn't like him because he

Speaker 9: would hit you or rough you up or do what

Speaker 9: he whatever he felt he needed to work on, and

Speaker 9: they ended up respecting him because it made everybody's level

Speaker 9: come up. 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 him in the NFL's version of a coach's time out.

Speaker 4: Former Cardinals head coach Den Stobin.

Speaker 6: And the one I remember was a wide receiver that

Speaker 6: he got in a fight with and entered up having

Speaker 6: to throw them both off the field because they every

Speaker 6: time the play started whether it'd be a fight between

Speaker 6: those two at the end of the play, and so

Speaker 6: I 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.

Speaker 1: We just, you know, we threw that.

Speaker 9: All 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.

Speaker 10: He was talking me up, So what the hell? Where

Speaker 10: are you all right?

Speaker 9: Thank you, appreciate your help, Jake.

Speaker 17: He said that I got to give him fifteen percent

Speaker 17: of whatever I get because of his good talk, so

Speaker 17: 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. So

Speaker 9: we were kindred spirits right away.

Speaker 6: Pat became a football player simply because of will and determination.

Speaker 6: He wasn't really big enough, strong enough, fast enough to

Speaker 6: play in the National Football League, but he willed himself

Speaker 6: 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, lew And High School in

Speaker 4: South San Jose. We were both from the Alminant Valley,

Speaker 4: which you might have seen featured in some of the

Speaker 4: Pat Tillman documentaries. His future father in law was my

Speaker 4: high school baseball coach. We were seven or eight years

Speaker 4: a part or so, and I still remember my dad

Speaker 4: called me during Pat's senior year of high school. Hey,

Speaker 4: you guess what he said? Leland is in this section

Speaker 4: title game. And I cut off my dad. I say,

Speaker 4: come on now, Pop, have you been drinking more of

Speaker 4: your red wine again?

Speaker 15: Come on?

Speaker 4: Soai, No, no, no, They've got this Tilman kid. He's

Speaker 4: a running back and nobody can tackle him, and he's

Speaker 4: a better middle linebacker. He's all over the field. So

Speaker 4: when 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 title, because, believe me, the career

Speaker 4: difficulty there. Pat's high school hasn't come close to winning

Speaker 4: before or after Pat.

Speaker 18: Both towers so the World Trade Center have been hit

Speaker 18: by aircraft.

Speaker 19: Both are in flames.

Speaker 7: It's a black smoke coming from both of the towers.

Speaker 13: It's a horrific scene here.

Speaker 3: There are choir crews just screaming into this area from

Speaker 3: every conceivable direction.

Speaker 17: You know, times like this you stop and think about

Speaker 17: just how not only how good we have it, but

Speaker 17: what kind of a system we live under, what freedoms

Speaker 17: were allowed? You know, my great grandfather was at Pearl Harbor,

Speaker 17: and a lot of my family has given up, you know,

Speaker 17: has gone and fought in wars. And I really haven't

Speaker 17: done a damn thing as far as laying myself on

Speaker 17: the line like that, and so I have a great

Speaker 17: deal of respect for those that have and what the

Speaker 17: flag stands for.

Speaker 4: The Voice of Pat Tillman, September twelfth, two thousand and one,

Speaker 4: the day after the horrific of 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 Urban.

Speaker 7: He was like, what we do playing in the NFL.

Speaker 1: He goes, We're worthless, We're actors.

Speaker 10: He goes, that means nothing. This is this is so

Speaker 10: much bigger than that.

Speaker 14: There's probably no better time to talk about a guy

Speaker 14: who took nine to one one to heart and made

Speaker 14: a life changing decision based on his feeling something he

Speaker 14: felt he needed to do.

Speaker 20: It was sort of the you know, man bites dog story,

Speaker 20: like this doesn't make any sense. He's right on the

Speaker 20: verge where in discussions with his agent about potentially extending

Speaker 20: his contract and he decided I'm going to walk away

Speaker 20: from this. But you know, it was just six months

Speaker 20: after nine to eleven, and it was only three weeks

Speaker 20: after he got married to Marie as high school sweetheart,

Speaker 20: and it was about one week after they got back

Speaker 20: from their honeymoon he joined the Army up in Colorado

Speaker 20: and then went on to become, you know, part of

Speaker 20: the Rangers and one of the.

Speaker 4: Leaders Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell. As Pat had just set

Speaker 4: a team record for tackles in a season, his jersey

Speaker 4: was worn by fans all over town. Plus there was

Speaker 4: the business of football, as Pat was on the verge

Speaker 4: of cashing in on a mega contract and he literally

Speaker 4: left it all behind.

Speaker 21: My reaction was was just I just like I just

Speaker 21: kind of had this big smiling started laughing to myself,

Speaker 21: like this is completely believable. I mean I did not

Speaker 21: expect him to join the army, but as I process it, like, yeah, Okay,

Speaker 21: of all the guys in professional sports in the world,

Speaker 21: 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 plan defending his country. And his

Speaker 4: former teammates. Remember the reactions like it was yesterday. Frank Sanders,

Speaker 4: Jake Plummer, and former head coach Vince Toben.

Speaker 15: I saw Pat coming out of the building and I

Speaker 15: was coming in where the players are only going in

Speaker 15: the lower area. I was coming into the gates he

Speaker 15: was going out and say, Pat, are you doing? What's

Speaker 15: up with your contract. He said, Broy, I'm probably gonna

Speaker 15: go to the military. I said what he said, Ye,

Speaker 15: I'm gonna go to the army and be arranged with

Speaker 15: my brother.

Speaker 1: So what you go do?

Speaker 15: What I want to serve my country, That's what I'm

Speaker 15: gonna do. I say, brother, God bless you.

Speaker 9: I just kind of like that sounds like, Pat, what

Speaker 9: can you do? I remember getting a call from Mike Devlin,

Speaker 9: who is my center of my rookie year and now

Speaker 9: is a coach with the Cardinals. He said, Hey, you

Speaker 9: got to call Pat. He's he's about to do something

Speaker 9: that you know, I don't know if he should do this.

Speaker 9: It's you know, he's giving up all this money and

Speaker 9: giving up the game, and I don't know. You should

Speaker 9: give him a shout. And I kind of chuckled because

Speaker 9: I was like, if Pat makes his mind up, he's

Speaker 9: made this decision and his wife hasn't changed his mind,

Speaker 9: and what good am I going to be to go

Speaker 9: try to change his mind. I'm not going to piss

Speaker 9: him off before he goes to fight for our country.

Speaker 9: I gave him a hug and told him I love him.

Speaker 9: He'd be safe out there, man, because there was no

Speaker 9: change in his mind.

Speaker 6: Well, he's all in. He believed in what he believed

Speaker 6: in and believed it very strongly, and acted on what

Speaker 6: he's blased where a lot of people have blafed, but

Speaker 6: they don't act on him, and he did no matter

Speaker 6: 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 fight for

Speaker 9: our country. Well, for Pat, it was just life. That

Speaker 9: was what life was about, was doing what you believed

Speaker 9: 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: Ken Summers from the Arizona Public.

Speaker 14: One of the things that really resonated with me was

Speaker 14: his refusal to talk about it ever. It's like, I'm

Speaker 14: not in it for that. I'm not in it for

Speaker 14: the stories. I'm not in it for a future movie

Speaker 14: or to set myself up for business later. I have

Speaker 14: my reasons for doing it. I'm not going to share them.

Speaker 14: 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 Cardinals staffer,

Speaker 4: Anthony Edwards, on Pat's selfless act.

Speaker 22: To serve that's humility. I choose to serve my country.

Speaker 22: I choose to go disc route instead of this one.

Speaker 22: The more popular vote would be stay where you at,

Speaker 22: continue to do what you're doing. But he didn't feel

Speaker 22: that was enough. That wasn't satisfying to him, so he

Speaker 22: chose the other.

Speaker 4: And that's former Cardinals receiver Anthony Edwards, who said it

Speaker 4: so well in Cardinals' Folktales that Pat was all about

Speaker 4: 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 Pats 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' Folktale's Legendary Locker on the Big Red

Speaker 4: Rage presented by Emergency Air. And welcome back to ours

Speaker 4: special encore presentation of Cardinals Folk Tales Legendary Locker here

Speaker 4: on the Big Red Rage presented by Emergency Air on

Speaker 4: Paul Calvic and if you go to State Farm Stadium,

Speaker 4: you'll see the Pat Tillman statue. There's Pat Tillman's name

Speaker 4: and number in the Ring of Honor. At Cardinal's headquarters,

Speaker 4: there's Pat's locker. And that's what we're talking about here tonight,

Speaker 4: the legendary locker. And last we left you here during

Speaker 4: Cardinals Folktales, Pat Tillman was making that selfless decision to

Speaker 4: leave football and a multi million dollar contract behind to

Speaker 4: serve his country. As we know, Pat lost his life

Speaker 4: in action while serving with the Army Rangers in Afghanistan

Speaker 4: and not only hit all of us in Arizona hard

Speaker 4: A lot of us vividly remember that April morning, but

Speaker 4: our nation mourned as well. And we pick up the

Speaker 4: story of how Pat's legendary locker still stands today. With

Speaker 4: a salute from Tom Cruise at the Espies.

Speaker 5: The news came out of Afghanistan that an athlete turned

Speaker 5: soldier was gone. And when we heard the news on

Speaker 5: that April day, it stopped us all in a long

Speaker 5: and profound silence. And we all know why, because Pat

Speaker 5: 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 impromptu memorial. The

Speaker 4: news hit with the ferocity of a Tilman tackle, and

Speaker 4: it struck owner Michael Bidwell and fullback Larry Centers the

Speaker 4: same way.

Speaker 20: It was a I mean, it.

Speaker 9: Was a gut punch.

Speaker 20: It was a kick to the stomach.

Speaker 1: I remember I was.

Speaker 20: I was standing in my closet that day, getting ready

Speaker 20: for work and to head into the office, and my

Speaker 20: phone rangked, you know, and sent shivers down my spine,

Speaker 20: and we realized it's going to be shocking news to everybody.

Speaker 7: I was in Dallas on the golf course. I was

Speaker 7: playing with a couple of guys who played in the NFL,

Speaker 7: and one of them got a call or a text

Speaker 7: and said, hey, man, Pat's him and just died in Afghanistan.

Speaker 7: It was a jaw dropping moment. I remember exactly where

Speaker 7: I was, like. I'm sure a lot of the teammates

Speaker 7: can tell you exactly what they were when they heard

Speaker 7: the news.

Speaker 4: As news traveled through the Cardinals facility, it reached the

Speaker 4: locker room longtime trainer John Omahandra.

Speaker 18: It weighed on us, impacted us a lot, and that

Speaker 18: started going through my mind a way that we could

Speaker 18: memorialize him or remembering in some fashion in the training room.

Speaker 18: I went down to pr asking him to give me

Speaker 18: a photo of Pat. I took it and had it framed,

Speaker 18: put it up over the tape table. So every day

Speaker 18: everybody that came in got overseen by Pat, and the

Speaker 18: guys would get up on the table to get taped

Speaker 18: and they could maybe this past thought on trying to

Speaker 18: live up to his standards of toughness and dedication, being

Speaker 18: a warrior, just all the things that Pat.

Speaker 4: Was the Tillman player photo that John Almahundro referenced, Well,

Speaker 4: if you walk into the training room today, that frame

Speaker 4: picture sits in this same exact spot, just like it

Speaker 4: did days after Pat's death.

Speaker 10: I think there's a wow factor to it.

Speaker 11: I take for instance, JJ Watt and he signed with

Speaker 11: the Cardinals, he took a picture in front of it.

Speaker 11: It means something to him. He's very familiar with the story.

Speaker 11: He's involved with the Pat Tillman Foundation.

Speaker 19: I've obviously long been a fan of Pat Tillman. What

Speaker 19: he stood for, who he was, and everything about his

Speaker 19: legacy is unbelievable to me. So to be here, to

Speaker 19: be walking the same halls that he walked and to

Speaker 19: see his locker was special for me.

Speaker 11: It made me feel good to see him, the guy

Speaker 11: of his level, standing in front of that and it

Speaker 11: 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 Omahundro, 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 3: I would paint Jim o'mahundro in this way.

Speaker 12: He works for the team, but I feel like in

Speaker 12: a lot of ways, Cardinals DNA is literally in him.

Speaker 11: So I've been around the Cardinals my entire life. My

Speaker 11: dad was an athletic trainer for the team for forty

Speaker 11: two seasons. I like to say I was negative nine

Speaker 11: when he started with the team, and so I was

Speaker 11: literally born into this organization.

Speaker 10: I couldn't imagine it any other way.

Speaker 3: Cardinal football means so much to him. Outside of the

Speaker 3: Bidwells who grew up with Cardinal football, I can't think

Speaker 3: of anybody who has a closer connection than the Bidwell

Speaker 3: family than the olle Hundre family because of the time

Speaker 3: 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 worker.

Speaker 11: It's a day after the Super Bowl, kind of slow

Speaker 11: around the facility, so I come over here to Oreganos

Speaker 11: just to get a normal lunch.

Speaker 10: So I ordered a slice and a salad, and I'm

Speaker 10: waiting for the food. So I'm scrolling through Twitter.

Speaker 11: I see a tweet by Darren Urban that alerts me

Speaker 11: to the renovation starting at our tempee facility. So I

Speaker 11: freak out. There's a photo with a destroyed locker on

Speaker 11: the ground. So I had ordered my lunch, it hadn't

Speaker 11: come yet, and I'm like, I got to get out

Speaker 11: of here. So I throw twenty dollars down onto the

Speaker 11: table and I'm out of there. I just run to

Speaker 11: my car, drive down, get to the facility, run through

Speaker 11: the parking lot, run through the auditorium, the weight room,

Speaker 11: the training room, step into the locker room. The carpet

Speaker 11: is all torn up. The glue from the carpet is

Speaker 11: there and it rips my shoe off my foot. So

Speaker 11: I'm hopping around the corner to see two lockers on

Speaker 11: one wall and about four lockers on the other. There's

Speaker 11: a guy with a saw walking directly for Pat Tillman's locker.

Speaker 11: I said, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, don't cut that

Speaker 11: one out. That's Pat Tillman's locker. So that's what happened

Speaker 11: 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 20: Found out an hour after it happened that Jim Olmhunter

Speaker 20: was walking through and said, wait, don't touch that. And

Speaker 20: so we're like, okay, we don't know what to do

Speaker 20: with it right now, but we're going to do something.

Speaker 20: And then because we were doing a renovation of the building,

Speaker 20: we look for an area where we could put it,

Speaker 20: and the designers found what I think is a perfect

Speaker 20: entry area right outside the locker room. So it's it's

Speaker 20: a perfect area and it's really a landmark within our

Speaker 20: building and serves as an important reminder for his sacrifice

Speaker 20: but also his spirit.

Speaker 11: Everybody who goes out to the practice field, they walk

Speaker 11: by it. Everyone who comes in from the practice field,

Speaker 11: they walk by it. And if you look at the

Speaker 11: old foot front of the locker room. It's literally on

Speaker 11: the other side of the wall, kind of diagonal from

Speaker 11: where it was, and I think that's pretty cool.

Speaker 10: It's 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 11: Pat's final year in the locker room was two thousand

Speaker 11: and one, so every year after that, I would kind

Speaker 11: of look to see who had that locker, and I'd

Speaker 11: make it a point to go up to him and say, Hey,

Speaker 11: you know who's locker you are sitting in, And they're like,

Speaker 11: who said Pat Tillman.

Speaker 10: Some of them looked at me like I was nuts,

Speaker 10: Like what this is Pat's locker?

Speaker 11: You know some that come to mind, Gabe Watson, former

Speaker 11: defensive tackle.

Speaker 16: O Mahandro told me, you share the same locker that

Speaker 16: Pat Tillman had. I'm like, are you serious? You know

Speaker 16: you hear the stories behind them, and there's only a

Speaker 16: few people that can say I shared the same locker.

Speaker 16: It's just honored to just be in any company with them.

Speaker 11: John Fullington was a reserve offensive lineman who was the

Speaker 11: final occupant of Pat's locker.

Speaker 10: And he was genuinely touched. I told him, and he

Speaker 10: he was just like, I'm honored.

Speaker 11: He didn't know what to say. So, you know, you

Speaker 11: see guys that maybe had that locker. Then you see

Speaker 11: guys that in future years will walk past that locker

Speaker 11: and you kind of get the idea of what they

Speaker 11: 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 12: When you get to that spot, it's almost a universal reaction.

Speaker 12: People just stop, and conversation ceases and they just take

Speaker 12: it in and there's like a solemn moment of reflection,

Speaker 12: which is really cool.

Speaker 7: Keeping his legacy alive. I think that's a big step

Speaker 7: in the right direction. You know, the generations go on

Speaker 7: and the people the players come and the players go.

Speaker 7: But to see him immortalize in that way and appreciated

Speaker 7: by the organization, I think that's a really good move

Speaker 7: of the team.

Speaker 22: It's a reminder as a player that's leaving out of

Speaker 22: the locker room going to the practice field. Here's someone

Speaker 22: was dedicated, committed to excellence in whatever he did. Just

Speaker 22: let us do the same thing and take it to

Speaker 22: the field today and be our very best. So it

Speaker 22: comes as a reminder of striving for excellence.

Speaker 11: Each time a guy walks by, they're gonna see Pat

Speaker 11: and his locker there, and remember, you know, hey, you

Speaker 11: could be having a crappy day.

Speaker 10: You could be complaining about little things, and.

Speaker 11: Then you see that and you check yourself a little bit, say, Okay,

Speaker 11: there's thousands upon thousands of men and women all over

Speaker 11: the world serving our country, and you know they can't

Speaker 11: afford to have a bad day.

Speaker 10: We can afford to have a bad day. So you've

Speaker 10: 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 13: Pat Tillman was all about team and if you can

Speaker 13: walk past that and not get something inside of you turning,

Speaker 13: we got some issues.

Speaker 3: Go back to the whole idea of you know, it's

Speaker 3: not what you say in life, it's what you do.

Speaker 3: And we can all talk, but ultimately it's what we do.

Speaker 3: And I think the lasting legacy of Pat Tillman is

Speaker 3: this is someone who did, who believed in something and

Speaker 3: was willing to risk his life for it.

Speaker 4: That's voice of the Cardinals day pass 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.

Speaker 1: Was like that.

Speaker 4: And there you have it. Gerdinal's Folktales 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, Hey, 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?

Speaker 12: Well?

Speaker 4: The Cardinals do just that every day by putting Pat's

Speaker 4: locker on display at their training facility. Thanks for joining us, everyone,

Speaker 4: I'm Paul Calvic. This has been Cardinals Folktales Legendary Locker

Speaker 4: presented by seventy two Soul. Thanks for listening. You know

Speaker 4: it's stories like that, and so many people have stories

Speaker 4: regarding Pat Tillman. That's how his legacy lives on today.

Speaker 4: If you go to the Pat Tillman Foundation website and

Speaker 4: they state out Pat's life and principles and service, that's

Speaker 4: his true legacy. How Pat's family and friends started the

Speaker 4: Pat Tillman Foundation to carry ford that legacy. If you

Speaker 4: go two days after his passing, it was the NFL

Speaker 4: Draft two thousand and four, and then Commissioner Paul tagli

Speaker 4: Boo wore a black ribbon with Tilman's name on it

Speaker 4: and a helmet pin with his number forty. And there

Speaker 4: was Paul Taglibou while flanked by five Marines in Madison

Speaker 4: Square Garden, and he told the audience quote, Pat Tillman

Speaker 4: personified the best values of Americans and the National Football League.

Speaker 4: And we know Pat's legacy is personified by Pat's Run,

Speaker 4: which is held annually in tamp And when we come back,

Speaker 4: we'll bring back and talk with Ron Wolfley, who covered Pat.

Speaker 4: Watched all those games from Sun Devil Stadium, both ASU

Speaker 4: and the Cardinals. As we continue with this encore presentation

Speaker 4: of Cardinals' Folk Tales Legendary Locker presented by Emergency Air.

Speaker 4: And welcome back to this very special edition of the

Speaker 4: Big Red Rage, Our Cardinals Folk Tales Legendary Life Edition

Speaker 4: presented by Emergency Air. Paul kelvc Ron wolf Ley and

Speaker 4: the story behind the saving literally saving Pat Tillman's locker

Speaker 4: from a certain destruction within seconds, wolf we heard the

Speaker 4: story man of how our own executive producer, a longtime

Speaker 4: producer for the Cardinals, Jim Almhandro 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, Paulie 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

Speaker 1: Football and the fact that it was him who actually

Speaker 1: came in and stopped them from literally cutting right into

Speaker 1: that locker and everything that has happened to that locker.

Speaker 1: Since that's exactly what a folktale is, Man, this is

Speaker 1: a folk tale about a folk tale legendary acts by

Speaker 1: 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 Gardek. We've talked to gard Deck

Speaker 4: the Barbarian, about it, have we not, Wolts you know

Speaker 4: he current players, you know, most of them are so young,

Speaker 4: they've only books about Pat Tillman. But it's what that

Speaker 4: locker says to them, and to listen to them tell

Speaker 4: it Wolf, It essentially means, Okay, can you get as

Speaker 4: much out of your life out of your career that

Speaker 4: Pat Tilman did, a guy who was barely drafted a

Speaker 4: seventh rounder and then went on to achieve so much,

Speaker 4: not only in football, but obviously in life itself.

Speaker 1: You know, I love that, Polly. 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 4: Yeah, that's a great point about the statue of the

Speaker 4: Tilman 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 Tillman jersey because it's about so much

Speaker 4: more than football. Football did not define Pat as he

Speaker 4: went on to serve his country in his status now

Speaker 4: as an American hero. I hope everyone enjoyed that Cardinals

Speaker 4: Folktales Legendary Locker Special Thanks Jim Amhandro for Ron wolfleyan

Speaker 4: Paul kelbyc. This has been the Big Red Rage presented

Speaker 4: by Emergency Air.

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Speaker 2: Emergency Air. The difference is we care.

Speaker 4: Arison dies for the up zone.

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