Tiger Bech, Former Princeton Football Player, Deserves To Be Honored As A Hero After Sacrificing His Own Life To Save Others In New Orleans Attack
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.In the week since the attack on Bourbon Street, we've found out a little more about those who had their lives tragically ripped away from them way, way too soon. 14 innocent lives were taken that early morning. 14 families were shattered. An unimaginable amount of lives would forever be altered at the hands of one horrendously evil human being.
It's difficult to pick up the pieces after a tragedy like that. It's hard to find the good in life when things of this nature happen, and unfortunately they seem to happen far too often. But one incredible story to come out of this catastrophic event comes from one of the victims themselves. Martin "Tiger" Bech.
A 27-year-old native of Louisiana and a former Princeton Tigers football player. Like everybody else that night, Tiger Bech was on Bourbon Street enjoying his life and celebrating the New Year. He and his friends had apparently met up with a few girls before the attack took place. The number of victims from the attack could have been higher than 14, but thankfully they weren't because of the heroism and selflessness put on display by Tiger Bech that night.
Based on the fact that this text refers to them as "the girls that we were talking with", I'm going to assume this group didn't know those girls previously. Meaning that they were essentially strangers to Tiger Bech. Yet he still made the split-second decision to save her life while sacrificing his own. There's a family out there right now who doesn't have to go through the same gut-wrenching experience as the Bech family right now, all thanks to Tiger Bech being a true hero.
That's a testament to a few things. For starters, the Bech family clearly raised their son to become an incredible man. The values instilled in him allowed him to make that final decision to save the life of another before his own. His parents and brothers and everybody in that family should be immensely proud of the man he was in that moment, and that will live on with them for the rest of time.
Also, former coaches and teammates should all be proud to have been around him for whatever time they had with Tiger Bech. I think playing team sports is such a crucial part of developing strong men with strong morals and values. The idea of putting the team in front of yourself. The sense of togetherness you learn from playing team sports your whole life. I'm sure Tiger Bech had plenty of coaches and mentors throughout his life who made that a part of his character, and they should be incredibly proud as well. It's always important to remember and honor the human over the athlete, but I'd imagine that being an athlete played a huge role in the type of human that Tiger Bech was.
It's people like Tiger Bech who allow you to remain optimistic about the world, and to continue having faith in humanity despite so many events telling you otherwise. The world would be a better place if everybody was like him. But at the end of the day, you just have to believe that there are more people like Tiger Bech out there than there are those who want to cause pain and suffering.
So thank you to Tiger Bech for being a hero. And here's to hoping that some of that strength gets passed on to all the friends and families right now who are still trying to process losing a loved one in that horrible attack.