Stick a microphone in front of Charles Tillman and prepare for nuttiness.
Stick a receiver in front of Tillman and prepare for seriousness.
One side of Tillman’s public persona–all goofiness and humor–clashes strongly with the focused and driven nature that those who know him well say is closer to his reality.
What you see off the field isn’t what his teammates see on it.
“If I could sum him up, I’d say he’s purpose-driven,” said Jerry Baldwin, his college coach at Louisiana-Lafayette and now a pastor in Ruston, La. “You’re talking about someone who finished school early, who’s a tremendously hard worker and fierce competitor. He may appear goofy. But hang around him, and you’ll know he’s serious.”
Tillman certainly was that the last time the Bears played, sitting in the postgame locker room and answering wave after wave of questions about getting beat for two touchdowns and committing a pass-interference penalty that led to a field goal in the loss to Cincinnati.
NFL cornerbacks need to have short memories, as do those who predicted All-Pro consideration for Tillman this season. Greatness is still possible, but Tillman knows his serious side is calling for serious work to correct his mistakes and avoid the need for him to be a stand-up guy.
“I’m going to make a bunch more mistakes in my lifetime; I know that,” Tillman said. “You have to learn from them. We lost, but I didn’t lose the lesson.
“I have to play better than what I’m playing. Bottom line. I’ve been misjudging deep balls. But my confidence is still the same. I’m not changing technique or anything like that. I’m doing everything the same. I’m doing everything that got me here to this point.”
This week, that involved Tillman staying after practice to work against Justin Gage, the type of bigger, physical receiver that Cleveland has. Given the amount of time Tillman put into practice since the Bears last played two weeks ago, he isn’t the only one who expects a resurgence against the Browns.
“If he doesn’t bounce back, I would be very disappointed,” defensive backs coach Perry Fewell said. “He understands what happened and will correct it. We concentrated [last] week on his press, preaching patience, and worked with him on deep balls also. On the deep ball [against Cincinnati], he didn’t flip his hips quick enough. That’s on him. But he’s a pro and a man about it.”
This accountability doesn’t surprise Baldwin, who witnessed it firsthand during Tillman’s collegiate career.
“I remember he got beat for the winning touchdown one time and was extremely torn up about it because he’s hard on himself,” Baldwin said. “But he came back to practice and worked and worked and worked. He was always very coachable and wanted to know the little things he needed to do to get better.”
Tillman’s responsibilities grew last week when wife Jackie gave birth to a baby girl. The child joins her father as a Chicago-area baby because Tillman was born here and attended kindergarten at Horace Mann Elementary on the South Side.
He estimates he has 30 to 35 relatives living in the area, including both sets of grandparents. That total is only slightly higher than the number of moves Tillman endured as he grew up in a military household.
His father, Donald Tillman, was an Army sergeant and with wife, Arbria, moved to places as disparate as Germany, Kansas and California. Tillman attended 11 schools while growing up.
Tillman doesn’t disagree that this nomadic lifestyle might have aided in the development of his gregarious personality and wacky sense of humor.
“When you move so much and you’re real quiet, you’ll never meet anyone,” he said. “You’ll sit at home. When we moved, I was always like, `I have to go make some friends.’ I’d go around trying to play football, basketball, tag, bike riding, something.
“I’m not really a shy person. If you stick me in a room full of strangers, I’ll come out with a couple of friends. If I have to be there, I might as well make the best of it.”
Teammates are used to his strong personality off the field.
“And when the cameras are on him, he gets goofier,” linebacker Lance Briggs said.
Muhsin Muhammad, who had never met Tillman when he signed with the Bears, simply and appreciatively calls him “crazy.” On Thursday nights, the pair co-host an entertaining radio show called “Bears All Access” on WSCR-AM 670.
On it, you’re just as likely to hear Tillman rap or break into impersonations as you are to hear him correctly tell Muhammad to use “Mark and I” instead of “Mark and me” in a sentence.
But Tillman knows when it’s time for the off-the-field fun to stop and the on-the-field focus to begin. His high-profile misses in this season’s first three games have only steeled Tillman to get better.
And that’s no joke.
“Whatever problems he’s having, he’ll fix them,” Baldwin said. “Trust me on that.”
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kcjohnson@tribune.com
