Famous Who Died Young Pat Tillman initial death cover-up, Famous People Who Died Too Soon. In 2002, Pat Tillman left a successful football career with the Arizona Cardinals to join the U.S. Army. He was killed in Afghanistan in 2004. The official story was that he was shot by enemy forces during an ambush, but it was later revealed that he may have been killed by friendly fire, and that Army commanders and members of the Bush administration covered up the truth of what had happened.
Pat Tillman gave up his professional football career with the Arizona Cardinals to join the U.S. Army Rangers after September 11.
In 2004, Pat was shot and killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire. But the story told by the government was quite different.
Mary Tillman, Pat's mother, documents her family's crusade to uncover the truth and expose the cover-up by senior military officials in her book, "Boots on the Ground by Dusk: Searching for Answers in the Death of Pat Tillman," which is being re-released to coincide with the August 20 release of the documentary "The Tillman Story."