Jun 10th 2008 7:06AM by Michael David Smith (author feed)
Filed under: AZ CardinalsPat Tillman is an American hero, and the NFL is, of course, proud to be associated with him. But his mother, Mary Tillman, believes that the league only wants to be associated with him on its terms.

In an interview with Dave Zirin, Mary Tillman said she still doesn’t think the Army has given her a straight answer about the circumstances of Pat’s death, and she thinks the NFL would rather exploit her son’s death than help her find out the truth:
“I think the [NFL] has not gone out of its way to help,” she told me. The league has “exploited Pat, just like the military. … [It has] a beautiful statue to him at the Cardinals’ stadium. I don’t know if that’s more for us or the [NFL]. I feel like it’s more for the league.”
Zirin writes that NFL owners have the political clout — thanks to millions in campaign donations — to put pressure on the government to get to the bottom of what really happened. Mary Tillman thinks they should.