you are right on the tigers vs iraq thing. Tillman however, turned down the American dream with a Multi $Million (13mil I think) contract in hand. The cadet that took the draft to go to the minors didn't make anything. Baseball is a different animal. Like he said though, he wouldn't trade the experience, but blood runs thicker than cash in this instance and he was moved by his brother, and his former training in the academy to go and serve. That is the difference in media coverage on this. I'd like to choke slam some of those sticks as well.
I'm throwing this on the end here as well for something else unrelated to your post, but what was also said above somewhere: I don't think Campbell's first thought when deciding to go to USMA was to get a chance to play NFL football. You'd really be foolish to think of such a thing unless you were going to the USAFA due to their most consisent ranking in the AP top 25 and their offensive style. If the Academies weren't semi thinking like any other D1A program in the last 15 years, then why do they compete at the D1 level? I think it is awesome that year in and year out they prove that they can compete with these schools, but why don't they compete with Ivy League or D1AA non scholarship or something comparable to what their school is. The education is free either way.