BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – You would expect a crowd of soldiers here at the USO Center for today's game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Philadelphia Eagles.

That's especially true because this is the Pat Tillman USO Center – named for the Cardinals' defensive back who gave up football after 9/11 to become an Army Ranger and then was killed in action in Afghanistan.

Tillman's No. 40 red jersey hangs over the widescreen TV in the main room of the USO Center. Photos of Tillman in a Cardinals uniform hang on the wall of the coffee bar, along with a chalk portrait of him as both a Ranger and a long-haired football player. A Pro Football Hall of Fame helmet sits on the shelf dividing the two rooms.

"This is more than a USO. It's a memorial to the man," said Tony Young, manager of the Tillman USO Center.

The center was built with more than $250,000 donated by the NFL after Tillman was accidentally killed by fellow U.S. soldiers during a firefight with Taliban insurgents in 2004.

This is the only USO Center in Afghanistan, and it is swamped. The coffee bar, TV lounge and loft are usually wall-to-wall with service members at all hours of the day and night. Soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen trying to get flights stop by for coffee, phones and the free wireless Internet service.

The USO Center has seats for perhaps 80 men and women. Bagram Air Field was designed to house 5,000 troops but is now a human clot of transient military. There are about 20,000 service members here.

"We're open 24/7, and this place is packed pretty much all the time," Young said. "We serve 1,600 cups of coffee a day."

Young plans to spruce up the place by painting the coffee bar in Cardinals colors – red and white. The TV lounge will sport the maroon and gold of Arizona State University, Tillman's alma mater. The USO also is planning to double the Internet capabilities of the site. The volume of users slows the WiFi service to speeds more familiar in dial-up days.

During morning cleaning hours, Young sets up a video camera for the troops so they can be filmed reading children's books for their kids back home. The USO mails the tapes to the soldiers' families.

There is no room to expand the building, which sits surrounded by the runway, the main passenger terminal, a cargo building and a street.

Army Capt. Kurt Schueller, a trainer of Afghan army and police, stopped by Friday while waiting for a flight to western Afghanistan.

Schueller, a Packers fan from Zachow, Wis., said he's pulling for the Cardinals to make it to the Super Bowl because of Tillman.

"Here's a guy who was on top of the world, and sacrificed it all for his country," he said. "You've got to admire that about the guy."