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In the week leading up to Pat's Run, I decided to try and learn a little more about Pat, by watching 'The Tillman Story.' I won't lie, up until now, I didn't truly understand the whole story of Tillman. I understood the basics. He was a gutsy undersized football player at ASU. Despite being undersized, he worked his way into the NFL while graduating from the prestigious W.P. Carey Business School with a high GPA. Against all odds, he became one of the hardest working safeties in the League. Then he did the unthinkable. Leaving the NFL and it's millions to fight for his country in the war against Terrorism. Past that, all I understood was that he was killed in battle, which we later found out was by friendly fire. 

If you don't know the whole story, watch the movie. If you want a quick (and not doing the movie justice) summary...here ya go.

When Pat died in April 2004, the media took the Army's story as is, and reported that he was killed while saving the lives of his counterparts. The Army played it up as truly heroic. They gave the Tillman family a 3000 page document with "details" of what happened. Most likely assuming that it would be overwhelming for a grief stricken family, the Army said he died in the "fog of war." Clearly, they didn't know the Tillmans.

Tillman's mother Mary looked into the investigation and began to find shortcomings in the story. Finding that the Army burned Pat's uniform, body armor, and diary, Mary began questioning all the details of his death.  The Tillman family demanded answers, and refused to settle with the "fluff" the Army had fed to the media. She found that the other soldiers had been craving a firefight. They were willing to do anything to shoot their guns, leading to an aggressive group of soldiers willing to fire upon anyone that could possibly be mistaken as the enemy. The Tillmans were relentless in uncovering the Army's false heresy and were able to deliver the truth about Pat's death. 

So is Pat Tillman an American hero? As Pat stated himself, he didn't want the attention. He was just like every other soldier, standing by his commitment to serve his country, even when he started to not believe in the mission. Tillman did what few people could imagine doing. Giving up the American dream of money and fame, to do what is most honorable. Pat Tillman will forever be remembered as one of the greatest Sun Devils to ever play at Sun Devil Stadium. PT42.

Hello everyone,

I know this is a sports blog, but occasionally I do venture away from my Sun Devil pedestal to talk about issues that are far more important in the greater scheme of things.

The tragic earthquake in Haiti has claimed more than 100,000 lives, and the death count is growing every hour. A lot of support is flowing in from all over the world, but the scale of destruction cannot be fathomed without actually seeing it firsthand.

Please read the following websites if you have yet to do so. Thank you for allowing me to veer off the stated mission of this website in order to endorse something that I feel is so important. Despite our nation's economic troubles, we can still help save this country from complete ruin.

New York Times: Haiti Earthquake of 2010

Clinton Bush Haiti Fund

Google Crisis Response

American Red Cross

Hi everyone, thanks for making House Of Sparky so much fun to write for. This list was compiled by the great SBN staff. It does not include GameThreads, but when they update the numbers I will update this post. Without further ado... The 2009 HoS Stats.

Special thanks goes out to Dirk Diggler and Red Reign for their consistent posting. Keep it up, everyone!

Stats For 2009

New Members

132

Total Comments

2254

Total Stories

256

Total FanPosts

33

Total FanShots

36

Most Active Commenters

Most Stories

Most FanPosts

Most FanShots

Alright. Once the games are over, there will be a dearth of entertainment. So here is your guide to greatness instead of watching basketball.

• John McCardell, President of "Choose Responsibility," an organization dedicated to lowering the legal drinking age to 18, will be on The Colbert Report tonight on Comedy Central.
• New "The Office" at 8:00 PM Arizona Time. What will happen? Will Steve Carrell dress up in a Willy Wonka outfit again? Or will Dwight be promoted to boss?
• Yo! Yo! is on MTV Tres at 8:30 PM featuring 50 Cent. Word.
• Warriors @ Lakers is on until 10 PM on TNT. Because we aren't watching enough basketball.
• Frasier reruns are on channel 7 at 9:00. Will he host a radio show? Will he live with an old man, a tiny dog and a gay guy? Will Daphne and him finally make out? No.
• Making The Band 4 is on MTV at 9. Pretty amazing.

As you can see, there is no shortage of amazing television to watch instead of college basketball...