Peanut Tillman Rowed A Boat Across Lake Michigan For Charity This Weekend
(SOURCE)
Charles Tillman and Jacob Beckley docked their row boat and stretched out on a pier at 31st Street Harbor for a few minutes, completely exhausted.
Family, fans and Tillman’s former Bears teammates Jerry Azumah and Anthony Adams cheered their arrival and waited for them to join them on deck, but the pair had just rowed more than 65 miles over 24 hours while crossing Lake Michigan to raise money for pediatric cancer research.
Charles ‘Peanut’ Tillman was the easiest athlete to root for for as long as I’ve been following Chicago sports. Not Konerko, not MJ, not anyone else. Peanut Tillman has that honor, for lack of a better term, and there’s not a close second. Now I never really considered him a Hall of Fame caliber player, more “Hall of Really Good”, but after interviewing Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs, Olin Kreutz and other teammates of his I think he has an excellent case. He was just a fantastic defensive back. He epitomized everything being a Chicago Bear meant; lunchpail/hard hat blue collar dude who LOVED to hit people.
I mean there’s a reason the Peanut Punch is even a phrase, because he did it with such regularity that anytime a DB would force a fumble, Bears fans scream “PEANUT PUNCH” at the top of their lungs.
6th all time in forced fumbles. 6th! As a goddamn corner!!! The top 5 is this:
DL, DL, DL, DL, DL, PEANUT, DL, LB, LB. Forcing that many fumbles as a DB is nothing short of absurd.
But rooting for Peanut went WAY beyond his awesomeness on the field. It’s shit like, ya know, rowing 24 straight hours on Lake Michigan to raise money for pediatric cancer. Peanut radiates “good dude”. Sure he was able to flip that switch and turn into a goddamn savage on the football field, but off it he was class personified. All of Chicago knows that and loves him for it. It’s a goddamn shame he never got that Super Bowl Ring because if anyone deserved one, it was him.
Oh, and he’s such a badass he’s also working in the FBI now. We weren’t allowed to ask him about a single detail of what his role in the FBI is, but rest assured he’s crushing that too. Because that’s what Peanut does. He crushes anything he sets his mind to.
I’d be remiss not to include a link to his charity. If you got a few bucks to spare, here’s the link to it: