Baffoe: Charles Tillman's Departure Is More Satisfactory Than Sad
By Tim Baffoe--
(CBS) I love Charles "Peanut" Tillman in that way a fan grows to think an athlete is part of his/her family because of a combination of longevity and comfortability. He's my favorite Chicago Bears player ever despite never being the best player on his team.
Being the alpha dog was never a concern of Tillman's; rather, doing his job and doing it well was the key. That's part of what has always made him endearing — that and his personality. Always an honest and humorous interview, his ability to flip the switch from mighty football warrior to smart, flawed, silly human being when having a conversation made him a Mark Grace reboot for me.
When news broke on Thursday that Tillman had signed with the Carolina Panthers, I did the reflexive inventory of his position in the Chicago sports pantheon and kept returning to my favorite Chicago Cubs player to this day. When Grace departed the Cubs and signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks, it hit me as does any departure of a tenured player in that it causes the fan to wake from the dream that is sports and come to terms with both the business that it is and the mortality it involves.
I was disappointed, immediately had separation pangs, but I wasn't heartbroken. Satisfied and appreciative, more so, and genuinely wishing him success in his next stop. And that's the way I feel as Tillman continues his career elsewhere.
It's not easy by any means. Grace was a slow smoking, drinking dude who just so happened to have a keen eye for bat on ball and the ability to scoop bad throws from infielders, with a quick wit and an ornery side when either was appropriate (or he made either appropriate). It was as if Grace wasn't supposed to be where he was, and that was special, and I didn't want any other team to get to share that.
Tillman was Chicago's "indie band," as I heard Laurence Holmes call him during his show on 670 The Score on Thursday night. Bears fans always knew how solid Tillman was and his penchant for doing the little things that added up, but he sort of flew under the radar nationally except for the occasional really spectacular play. But if an indie band is any good, it doesn't stay a secret for long, and it has to move on from the bars and small theaters it cut its teeth in.
There shouldn't be anger toward a player or a team for such a separation. A championship wasn't won while Grace and Tillman were here, but it wasn't for lack of their trying. And there's the selfish pathos of wanting "your guy" to retire in your favorite uniform (and Tillman has said he'll retire a Bear), but at the end of the day, what does that even mean in the panoramic of a career?
Even if Tillman were 25 years old and chasing money, I wouldn't fault him. The selfish fan reaction to a player of dubbing him a "traitor" for bettering his situation or to fault a franchise for putting business and winning over sentimentality is a really bad look. I'm looking at you, still-sore Brian Urlacher loyalists.
Grace was 36, ancient in terms of an athlete, when the Cubs chose not to re-sign him following the 2000 season. Tillman is a comparably dated at 34. Both guys wanted to return to the only respective team they had ever played for, but the writing had been on the wall for a while. And I'm at ease with the latter as a younger, much dumber me surprisingly was with the former.
While I love Peanut, I don't $3.05-million-in-2015 love Peanut. That's what he's getting from the Panthers, and more power to him. It's a deal like that that makes his departure even easier to swallow, because a rebuilding Bears team isn't about to pay even its greatest cornerback ever that money after injuries that knocked him out of the majority of the last two seasons.
There was an unpleasant pinch when Grace won a World Series in his first year with a franchise that was only four years old. Pristine congeniality be damned — all Cubs fans thought to themselves for at least a second as the champagne sprayed on Grace, "You gotta be kidding me." But it was genuine happiness for him for the most part. (Beating a New York Yankee team that even in the immediate shadow of 9/11 was hard to warm up to didn't hurt his cause.)
The same teeny bit of bitter jealousy would arise should Tillman win his elusive Super Bowl with Carolina, which despite existing since 1995 still feels expansion-y and less deserving of a title than a franchise like the Bears. But it would be trumped by the ease I'm at with knowing that Tillman was the consummate pro and an even better person here, and he leaves with nothing left to accomplish in Chicago. Because I know there won't be championship buzz going on in the Windy City this coming season, my rooting interest will breeze over to the coast should the Panthers be in the postseason.
And if you love Peanut, your heart should follow him there, too.
Tim Baffoe is a columnist for CBSChicago.com. Follow Tim on Twitter @TimBaffoe. The views expressed on this page are those of the author, not CBS Local Chicago or our affiliated television and radio stations.
