Did anyone notice?

he still kicked the *beep* out of Hondo at the shooting range.

and yes everyone noticed it, it wasnt THAT subliminal.

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I didn't notice it the first time I watched the movie but I noticed it later when watching it later on DVD.

Here's something interesting to think about: he ends up betraying his fellow SWAT Team members BECAUSE he got "shot" during the quals test.

I am not now, nor have I ever have been, a police officer. However, as a former firefighter/paramedic in a large midwestern city, I have been privileged to know a good number of law enforcement, a few I have even called friends. Every police officer, SWAT or not, knows at the back of his or her mind that the job is dangerous, that someday they might not come home at the end of shift. Unless and until they or a close friend have a close call, however, the idea remains just that: a notion that "it may happen to someone else but not to me" (as they say, denial is not just a river in Egypt!). When T.J. got shot during the quals, my guess is that it really brought home to him that "hey, it CAN happen to me, very easily". Then later, when the opportunity presented itself to get rich and get out of the line of fire, he jumped at it. Had he not been hit, I don't know that maybe he may have been like the others: briefly fantasize about having that kind of money, but not seriously consider committing a major crime in order to get it.

For me, I am quite familiar with the "it can't happen to me" mentality: my career as a firefighter was cut short after only a few years when I was severely injured during a call. I eventually recovered (mostly), but I can no longer fight fires or rescue people or really do much more than put in my 40 hours a week behind a desk. One of the last things I remember before my accident was the thought that "nothing can happen to me".