Seven years ago today, Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan, after having given up a NFL career in order to serve in the military. He was the first NFL player to die in military service since Bob Kalsu was killed in Vietnam. Many many wonderful tributes to Tillman’s sacrifice, then there was this one, which was your winner for trying to tie a tragedy to an unrelated event by ripping on Eli Manning for not wanting to play for the Chargers. 

Will we ever see a draft with as much talent as 1983? The famous draft took place with many story lines. By far the biggest was John Elway and his showdown with the Baltimore Colts. Elway threatened to play baseball if the Colts drafted him and didn’t trade his rights, stating that he wanted to play for a team on the West Coast. Meanwhile, Eric Dickerson didn’t want to go play for Houston, and they eventually traded the pick before the draft to the Rams, moving down and still getting Bruce Matthews. It was the draft of the quarterback, with four and maybe five possibly going in the first round (Elway, Kelly, Eason, Blackledge and Marino mentioned here). Marino fell to the Dolphins, as every other team in the AFC East took a quarterback before he went. Jets fans were not enamored with the Ken O’Brien pick.

ESPN televised the draft in 1983, but it was on a Tuesday morning, with coverage beginning at 5 am on the West Coast. George Grande, Paul Zimmerman, and Howard Balzer anchored the coverage in New York. Now to the rest of your flashbacks.

Columbine Massacre (1999) . . . The NBA Finals between the Knicks and Lakers didn’t have every game on network television-a disgrace (1970) . . . Secretariat soundly defeated at Wood Memorial, shows he is fallible heading into the Derby (1973) . . . George Foreman fights five patsies in one night (1975) . . . “New owners planning to move Celtics west?” (1972) . . . Gretzky says his former team will win the Cup after they sweep the Kings- and they did, eventually beating the Bruins (1990) . . .  The Hal McRae tirade (1993) . . .

Lenny Randle surrenders to police pursuant to warrant based on his spring training assault on Texas Rangers manager Frank Lucchesi (1977) . . . Majority of sportswriters think a home run record due to L.A. Coliseum’s short left field would be invalid (1958) . . . Bob Horner not happy about being sent to minors after a 2 for 34 start (he hit 33 homers the year before) (1980) . . . Pirates sue Dave Parker to avoid paying deferred payments on basis that Parker’s cocaine use led to “mediocre play” (1986) . . . Ford Frick tries to curb high stakes card playing in baseball (1953) . . . Baltimore Orioles lose 20th straight game to start season-it would get to 21 (1988) . . .

Lisa Olson sues the New England Patriots (1991) . . . Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder passes away (1996) . . .Hockey playoff violence article in wake of Richard Zednick and Kenny Jonsson concussions (2002) . . . Georgia fraternity busted for counterfeiting Masters tickets (1965) . . . Majority of sportswriters think a home run record due to L.A. Coliseum’s short left field would be invalid (1958) . . .Gene Conley went from winning a NBA championship with Celtics to winning a game as a pitcher with the Red Sox in two weeks (1961).

[photo via Getty]