I’m reading Jon Krakauer’s Where Men Win Glory, which is sort of a dual biography of Pat Tillman and history of Afghanistan. (Do I know how to party, or what?) Tillman was the Arizona Cardinals safety who left the NFL after September 11th to enlist in the Army. He was killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire while serving as an Army Ranger. Fascinating dude, totally worth reading about.

One thing that you may not know about Tillman is that he was charged with felony assault when he was seventeen. It was a dumb mistake – he was out with some friends, and one of them left the group to try to start a fight with another group of boys. He succeeded, and being a shrimpy fella, proceeded to get a pretty decent beatdown. After a minute, Tillman and his friends returned, and the other boys took off.

Tillman misread the situation, and pounced on the largest of the boys who was running. And he beat the heck out of him, giving him a concussion and shattering his teeth. A few weeks later, he was charged.

He was also offered a scholarship from Arizona State University, which would be retracted if he were to be convicted of a felony. The judge, over the objections of the prosecutor, apparently reduced the charges to a misdemeanor, to which Tillman pled guilty. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 250 hours of community service, and he was allowed to keep his scholarship.

The boy that he beat up – one of his friends talked about that in the book. At the time, she had been furious. But when Krakauer found her, she was more reflective, and I thought it summarized very nicely what we believe, and what we do, here at Sumpter & Gonzalez:

She lamented that her only personal knowledge of Tillman revolved around one of the most regrettable incidents in his life. “What I take from Pat Tillman is that you are not who you are at your worst moment. After what Pat did to Darin, it seems like he really turned his life around and became quite an honorable person.”

When dealing with juveniles, this is especially true. But it’s really the case for everyone we deal with. When people ask me if I feel weird working for a firm that represents a lot of people who are guilty, that’s what I remember: They’re not what they’ve been charged with. Even if they did it – there’s more to a person than the worst thing they did in their life. If you reduce them that way, you have fewer opportunities for heroes like Tillman.

Labels: football, holistic advocacy, juveniles, pat tillman, public perception, second chances, standing up for people

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