WCG Interviews Charles Tillman

Charles Tillman has joined with the official hotel of the NFL, Courtyard by Marriott, to create the latest in their series of "Courtyard Camera" videos. Yesterday morning, Charles took some time to talk to WCG about making the video to give us his take on both the current Bears and his future.  Asked about making the video - which you can find down at the bottom of the page - Tillman said, "If football doesn't work out for me, I think I want to be a director. You get to boss everyone around, you get to be rude, you get to slap makeup and powder on their face. It was a lot of fun, and I had a lot of fun with Courtyard. Any time you can have some props, some hidden cameras, and myself, we're gonna have a good time."

I had two must-ask questions for Tillman - what were his plans for next season, and if they didn't include playing football, would they potentially include coaching? With his contract expiring this season, he was blunt about his prospects for 2015, saying, "I don't know if I'll be in a Bears uniform next year.  That's not for me to say.  Right now, I'm looking at all 32 teams as options, including the Bears."

Tillman's career future as a player is unclear, but he was 100% clear about an option he would never pursue: coaching.  Asked whether he would consider making the move into the coaching ranks, Tillman's response was, "Absolutely not - coaching is not a desire I have right now.  The only people I'm coaching are my kids.  Coaches, they meet too much.  They'll have a meeting about how to make a meeting better.  I definitely don't want to coach...  zero interest to coach." In case there was any doubt, he punctuated his response by saying, "Zero.  Zero.  Zero."

Tillman spoke to NFL AM early yesterday to give his take on Cutler's season, but as far as the locker-room's initial reaction to Jay Cutler getting benched, Tillman said that "It probably came to [that] we're not making the playoffs right now.  There's 53 guys on this team, so let's see what we got, let's see what the other guys can do... I'm sure you'll see a lot of non-starters get playing time."

Tillman has been in a unique position to observe Kyle Fuller's development throughout his rookie season, and asked whether Fuller has what it takes to become the next Charles Tillman for the Bears, he said that "I don't think he can be the next Charles Tillman, I think he can be the next Kyle Fuller.  I think he can be as good as he wants to be.  Obviously, he's made some mistakes, but I was in the same boat.  I think that's how you grow - you learn from your mistakes.  I think he's a sharp kid, and he has way more knowledge of the game than I did at his age.  From that standpoint, his rookie year is leaps and bounds ahead of [mine]. I really think the sky's the limit for him, and I think Chicago's going to see a lot of big plays by Kyle Fuller."

Charles Tillman has long been notorious as a prankster, and I asked him about his favorite pranks to pull off.  As he described his antics,"I have this knack for scaring people... I go around upstairs on the second floor [of Halas Hall] - and players don't really go up to the second floor, it's a forbidden area - [and] everyone's fair game.I scare coaches, trainers, players, media relations, ticket sales - you name it, I've scared 'em. I see that true reaction of when they really get scared. Some people run, some people tense up, some people try to punch you... It's hilarious." And while we might not ever have the chance to see that happen in person, he did say, "Look for that in the new Courtyard series - me scaring people."

Thanks to Charles Tillman and Courtyard for their time.  And as far as that current Courtyard video, here it is: