Mail from Manchester: Postcards with Charles Tillman | Tuesday, June 10
As told to Gabby Hajduk
Former cornerback Charles "Peanut" Tillman is with the Bears in the United Kingdom to support girls flag football championships, help run Mini Monsters clinics and explore some Premier League stadiums. Check out Peanut's postcard from Manchester at iconic Old Trafford, home of Manchester United.
What's up Bears fans,
It's Charles Tillman checking in right from the famous Old Trafford pitch. It's my first time being at Manchester United's stadium and actually, my first time on a real, Premier League pitch.
I've gotta say, it's pretty cool. You can really feel the history this storied club has — it's very similar to that of the Bears and Soldier Field. I've heard some incredible stories today just talking to some fans, alumni and the staff.
We came out here to watch a friendly competition between groups of fans, who won the chance to play a game of football on this legendary pitch. What made it so cool is nobody ever gets to touch this pitch, so for these fans, you could tell it was their Super Bowl.
One guy flew 24 hours from Australia to play in this 90-minute game. Like how crazy is that? That just goes to show how significant an opportunity like this is. It's super cool that we got to experience this as well.
A Man U legend, Wes Brown, showed me around the stadium, which was awesome. He played 15 years for this club and he's just a solid dude. We hung out all day.
He came to our first Manchester Mini Monsters clinic in the morning, helped with the drills and just asked a ton of questions about American football. At Old Trafford, we really switched roles and I turned into him, asking him all types of questions about his version of football.
Wes did a great job of explaining things to me and just teaching me more about the sport and the history of Manchester United. I got to see all their trophies and hear about their success. It's been such a great time.
I also loved being back at the Mini Monsters clinics over here. I helped out at the clinics last fall in London when the Bears had their international game at Tottenham. I had a great time teaching the kids back in October and I really took some lessons from them as well, like them calling my sport American football, since they refer to soccer as football over here.
I took that to heart and have really been trying to use the correct terms this time. The kids at the Manchester clinics were great as always. I was actually surprised by how well-behaved the kids were. I've done numerous clinics now and usually they act like kids, bouncing around like little jelly beans hopped up on sugar and soda. But these kids, they were locked in.
There were some kids who had never played the sport and seeing them have a chance to try it out and see what it's about was awesome. They all loved the drills and just loved being outside running around.
Really, Mini Monsters is all about giving kids the chance to actually be kids. Getting them to be active, move around and have fun. That's what they're supposed to be doing.
We're wrapping up our clinics in Manchester now and then heading off Liverpool to round out the trip. I'll be checking back in soon!
- Peanut
