Charles “Peanut” Tillman has been one of Chicago’s most recognizable professional athletes for the past 12 years. You won’t hear anything negative said about Peanut, because his play on the field has been All Pro worthy and his reputation in the community has been exemplary. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Charles and his beautiful wife Jackie a few different times and was always impressed with him as a person and them as a couple. I think it’s important to learn new and more interesting things about athletes beyond the helmet, jump shot, or hockey stick, which helps to humanize them. I recently had brunch with Peanut at one of his go to spots in Lake Forest, IL called Egg Harbor. We talked about his childhood growing up as a military brat, challenges he faced at a young age, raising his three kids to be best friends, his accomplishments off the field, giving back to those in need, and why his wife thinks he’s a Diva.
DC: I know that you were a military brat growing up and lived all over the world. Tell me how your experience at a younger age had an impact on who you are today, both positive and negative.
PT: The positive about being a military brat was that I was able to adapt in certain situations, because I moved around so much. I would be here for a year and there for two years, which meant that I changed schools a lot and had to make new friends. I remember one year when I was in third grade I started at a school and we didn’t start writing cursive yet. But then I ended up going to another school and they were already doing cursive. When I mastered writing in cursive, I moved again in third grade and I went to another school and they were doing division. So each time I was placed in a situation where I had to get it on the fly. The negative is that you struggle with fly. I don’t want to say that it killed my confidence, but I was so terrible at math, because we moved all the time. I would attend one school where they were
doing something different that I hadn’t done yet. Sometimes I felt dumb, but I knew I wasn’t dumb, I just didn’t know. I overcame those obstacles by spending a lot of nights working on math with my mom and my dad, especially long division. I also struggled with friends, because sometimes there was no one at a new place that I knew which forces you to go out and open your mouth, speak and be friendly and open to new things. I was fortunate to have an older brother, so that helped, but often other kids were the only child and didn’t have anyone to play with. Over time things got easier.
DC: Your accomplishments on the field speak for themselves and you’ve been recognized for off the field accomplishments as well. What more off the field would you like to accomplish after your NFL career?
PT: Honestly I’ve accomplished what I’ve wanted to do thus far and that’s just helping people. It’s really not so much about my name, because I go out and do things because I want to. We all have a purpose in life. Some know there’s and some don’t, but I feel like my purpose is just helping people. Obviously I have the notoriety, the name recognition and the platform, so for me to go out and do something because I want to do it, is all the accomplishment that I need. One of the greatest commandments in the Bible is Love Thy Neighbor as Thy Brother. Me loving on people by seeing and helping someone who needs a helping hand; I’m OK with that. I try to put myself in another person’s shoes. If I was in that person’s shoes would I want ten dollars to put gas in my car or extra money around Thanksgiving for groceries? Sometimes people get laid off around Christmas and need money to buy gifts for their kids. These are everyday real life situations. People deal with this on the regular, so I’m fortunate enough and blessed financially where I can lend and help out people. I would want someone to do that for me if I was in that situation.
"My wife calls it crazy, but I can compartmentalize many things that are going on in my life and I’m pretty good at it."