American football star Charles ‘Peanut’ Tillman has compared Everton's new Hill Dickinson Stadium to Chicago Bears' Soldier Field where the Blues will play next month
Everton legend Peter Reid shows former NFL player Charles Tillman around the club's new Hill Dickinson Stadium
Everton legend Peter Reid shows former NFL player Charles Tillman around the club's new Hill Dickinson Stadium
American football star Charles ‘Peanut’ Tillman believes Everton supporters travelling to Soldier Field, the arena where he played in the NFL for Chicago Bears, are in for a treat this summer while comparing it to Hill Dickinson Stadium. Tillman was shown around both Goodison Park and the Blues’ 52,888 capacity future home by Everton legend Peter Reid when visiting Merseyside for the Chicago Bears’ Mini Monsters clinics designed to provide children aged seven-to-12 with their first experience of American football.
The events were hosted over two days at Leisure United Jeffrey Humble on Long Lane with over 600 children from 14 local schools in attendance. Tillman was blown away though with what he witnessed at Bramley-Moore Dock.
The 44-year-old told the ECHO: “Soldier Field (where Everton will play against West Ham United in the second of their three Premier League Summer Series matches on July 30) is a very historic stadium. I think when people from Everton get there, they’ll see a lot of similarities to their new stadium.
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“Everton’s new stadium has like a flying saucer feel to it with the silver bar on the outside and Soldier Field kind of has the same effect. It’s a newer stadium on the inside but the exterior has the original pillars, these massive Roman-style columns, and it looks like the Colosseum.
“Driving up to Everton’s new stadium, it’s on the water (River Mersey) and the Bears’ stadium is on the water (Lake Michigan). The old dock wall around Everton’s new stadium gives it character and it just looks really cool and gives it an industrial look, it’s a great design, I’m really looking forward to coming back and going to a game.
“I went inside and saw the locker room with the Everton crest up on the ceiling, walked on the pitch, sat in the seats and looked at the restaurants that they’re starting to put in. Seeing the inside of the facilities at the new stadium, I’m impressed.”
After starting with domestic friendlies at Accrington Stanley (July 15) and Blackburn Rovers (July 19), David Moyes’ men embark on their transatlantic trip with fixtures against Bournemouth at the Metlife Stadium, New Jersey (July 26) and Manchester United at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium (August 3) either side of their encounter at Soldier Field. Tillman reckons travelling Blues have got plenty to look forwards to in the Windy City and said: “Chicago is a real sporting hotbed with all our various teams, but I will say this though, as long as the Bears are winning, it’s a Bears town, all day long.
“I remember Michael Jordan, he was the greatest basketball player of all-time but I never got to see him, it would have been nice to watch him play just once. When the Bulls, the Blackhawks the Cubs and the White Sox won their championships, it was still a Bears town.
“I hate to say that, but I don’t make the rules, that’s just the fans. They deem it a Bears town, we’ve just got to start winning some games.
“I think Everton fans travelling to Chicago can expect a very warm welcome, with some great food, some great Italian beef, some good Chicago dogs, some good deep-dish pizza and some Garrett popcorn. There are tons of rooftops, Chicago is known for its restaurants and beautiful skyline, I don’t think there’s a better city in the summertime than Chicago.”
Charles Tillman is welcomed by Everton
Charles Tillman is welcomed by Everton
Tillman spent the majority of his youth travelling around the world because his dad Donald Tillman junior was a sergeant in the United States Army, and after attending 11 different schools, he graduated from Copperas Cove High in Texas. After playing college football for the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, he was delighted to be picked in the second round of the 2003 NFL Draft by his local team though.
He said: “It was absolutely special coming back to Chicago to play in the NFL. Being born there, my mother and father were born there and I was born 10 minutes from Soldier Field in a hospital that is still in use.
“My grandparents live just 15 minutes from Soldier Field in the house that I grew up in. It meant a lot coming home because I have a lot of uncles, aunties and cousins that still live there, and they got a chance to see me play and that was awesome.”
Tillman led four 90-minute clinics alongside Everton in the Community staff and Chicago Bears coaches. The Bears use these sessions to highlight the importance of community sport in promoting youth development and healthy lifestyles, stressing the importance of healthy eating, physical activity, and proper hydration through fun, non-contact American football drills.
All children and young people can participate regardless of experience with American football or physical capability and Tillman said: “On this trip we’ll have about a thousand kids over a four-day period, running them through six different drills with each one focusing on a different dynamic or aspect of American football. It gives the kids an idea of what it’s like in terms of the movements that American footballers do.
“Right when we start, one of the questions that I ask is ‘how many of you have played American football?’ Out of all of them, I’d probably say it’s 20-25% of the kids who come have already done so.
“With the others, it doesn’t take long for them to get into the groove of playing. If I was to explain it to them, they’d be like: ‘What did you just say?’ I don’t get it.’
“But once you show them and they can physically see what it is, they equate it and turn it into fun. The kids are having a blast, they’re having a ball.”
Participants at the Mini Monsters Clinic at Leisure United Jeffrey Humble on Long Lane
Participants at the Mini Monsters Clinic at Leisure United Jeffrey Humble on Long Lane
Tillman, nicknamed “Peanut” by an aunt because of his supposed resemblance to one during infancy, played 12 seasons for Chicago Bears before finishing his pro career with a solitary year at Carolina Panthers and holds the NFL record for the most forced fumbles in a game (four) – with his well-timed ‘Peanut punches’ – explained his passion for a game that can attract large crowds in the UK but has relatively low participation numbers compared to traditional British sports.
The former cornerback said: “I’m a little biased but I tell everyone that (American) football is the greatest sport. All the movements you do, the changes of direction, there’s a different dynamic of how players have to operate.
“It’s so hard and technical at the highest level, that’s why I love the sport so much. The lateral movement, the sprinting, the stop and the going, the speed, the physical strength, the smarts, the calls, the defences and the offences that you’ve got to read on the fly, reading your receiver, checking out of something, it’s a thinking man’s game.
“It’s more than just running the ball, catching and tackling someone. There’s so much that goes into an NFL game.
“However, all the other sports that I grew up playing helped me become the athlete that I was. I don’t think I’d have been as good if I’d just played one sport.
“I’m all about playing American football, tennis, basketball, lacrosse. All these sports help you and they all cross over into whatever is your primary sport.”