Tillman plays his last professional football game on January 6, 2002. It’s a makeup game for the one canceled due to 9/11. Over the season, many players have expressed their outrage over 9/11 and their support of the troops, but none takes action. Tillman wants to do more.

He speaks to his brother Kevin and Marie about enlisting in the Army. He and Marie visit an ex-Marine, and Tillman picks his brain about his experience in the armed forces. Marie describes Tillman’s decision to enlist as a slow process. He weighs the pros and cons, researching them carefully. Marie knew it was only a matter of time before he left the NFL; he already considered other options before 9/11. She never asks him why he wants to join, intuiting that “[i]f it was the right thing for people to go off and fight a war, he believed he should be part of it” (157).

On April 8, 2002, Tillman makes his official decision to enlist, typing up a long letter of justification. He acknowledges the burden it will place on his loved ones, but ultimately rejects the comfortable existence of trivial professional sports in favor of a life with greater meaning. Kevin toyed with the idea of joining for years, after a chronic injury has affected his minor league baseball career.