Charles Tillman has not practiced all week, back spasms keeping him from doing much more than therapy, but the Bears’ cornerback doesn’t want to hear how it is probably unnecessary for him to play Sunday night against the Packers.
“I know we have a first-round bye, home-field advantage, the No. 1 seed and all that,” Tillman, still listed as 50-50 to play in Sunday’s game, says on Saturday. “But I would still like to play every game. I like to practice, I like to play and I don’t want to miss. I like playing in front of our fans, in our stadium, at night on national TV. Who wouldn’t want to do that?
“I feel I’m ready, but it’s not up to me. I have to respect whatever decision is made.”
If this is a playoff game, maybe. But it’s not, and Tillman is placed on the inactive list Sunday.
Waiting game
It may be a short work week, with the Bears’ customary “Victory Monday” day off coinciding nicely with Christmas. But for Tillman, it feels that much longer with the pain and frustration of injury.
“It’s kind of like you’re on standby,” he tries to explain. “You want to play, but you don’t know if they’ll let you play, you don’t know if you’re up or down.”
Bears coach Lovie Smith makes the final call on injured players’ status after consulting with head trainer Tim Bream. In Tillman’s case, as with many players, his status is a game-time decision, making it that much more agonizing for a player eager to play.
Is it tough not to oversell his condition? Not for Tillman, apparently.
“You let them know what you feel exactly, and you don’t feel the need to lie to them because if you lie and get in the game and are hurt, it only hurts the team, and that’s the last thing I want to do,” Tillman says. “If you can go, you go. If you can’t, you can’t.”
One problem with Tillman’s injury is that back spasms are tough to gauge from day to day. “It just kind of comes and goes,” he says. “I really have no control over it.”
A common emotion among injured players is a feeling of isolation from teammates. Tillman had missed only one other game, last week in Detroit, but he knows the feeling.
“I definitely feel a part of this team, but when they’re out at practice and I’m doing rehab work, you miss certain things,” he says. “I have to sit on the sidelines and watch. They’re [ready] to go to battle, and you want to go to battle with your guys. You want to be in the trenches with them.”
Instead Tillman, like other inactive players, gets “mental” reps, “still paying attention, reacting to things I see, saying to myself, `OK, what would I do?’ You put yourself in a down and distance, give the call. I’m in it mentally always.”
Tillman says he learned this routine in 2004, his second year in the league, when he missed eight games with a knee injury.
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“I figured it out then that since I couldn’t get reps physically, this is what I had to do,” he says. “I was still like a rookie then, still learning. That was my first injury ever, the first time I ever had to miss any games, so it was kind of hard.”
Christmas
While the Tillmans’ 15-month-old daughter played with the wrapping–“She can’t fathom Santa yet,” says Dad–he is thrilled with his gift. From his wife, not Santa. “I got the iMac all-in-one computer,” he says. “It was the best present.”
Still, like most of his teammates, he wouldn’t mind something else. “I’m still looking for the PS3, if anyone has any information on how I can get one, besides buying it on eBay,” Tillman only half-jokes. “I’m not going to go on eBay and pay $2,000 for it. I want to pay the box price.”
Other than that, the Tillmans are a happy group Monday, hanging out at home, playing with their dog and cat, watching a little football and calling relatives before heading over to the next-door neighbor’s house for dinner.
“This was our first Christmas at home since we were playing on Christmas Day last year,” he says, “so it was good to be home.”
Next year might be a little more interesting for their daughter, but Dad isn’t rushing anything.
“I’m learning in my young stages of parenthood to take it as it comes because I wanted her to walk so bad and now she’s walking and she won’t sit still,” he says with a laugh. “So I’ve learned to just appreciate each day because one day I won’t be able to hold her and tuck her in. I just enjoy it.”
Pro Bowl
“I’m not going to say I was bummed,” Tillman says of the Pro Bowl voting, which some of his teammates called a snub of their starting left cornerback.
“I didn’t make it, but I look at it as there’s always another opportunity for me to try to get it next year. I don’t think a Pro Bowl defines who I am as a player. Anyone would like to make it to a Pro Bowl. But if I don’t make it, am I a failure? I don’t think I’m a failure or I had a bad regular season because I didn’t make it.”
Tillman doesn’t want to share specifics but says he accomplished “90 percent” of his goals this season. “Each year I just try to have a better year than my previous year, and I think so far I’ve held true to that,” he says.
Tillman is down in tackles, from 104 and 84 solo in a career-best 2005 to 88 total and 67 assists this season, and tied with five interceptions, both career-bests.
One on one
On a normal week, Tillman and receiver Rashied Davis work one-on-one after practice. “He works on getting off the ball or getting off the press, and I’ll work on my press technique,” he says. “He wins some, and I win some. It’s 50-50, really good competition. I’m trying to get him better, he’s trying to get me better.”
During practice, Tillman has some of his best battles against Muhsin Muhammad, though it gets only so good.
“You really have to be careful,” he says. “I’ve been in plenty of situations where I’m about to make a play, but I know I can’t. We might both go up and he’s falling, and you just try to catch him to keep him from falling or hurt himself. We know how to practice with one another. If a guy is in the air, I’m not going to go hit his legs or anything like that. I’m going to let you catch it and I’m going to put my hands back. I want you to catch the ball and come down. Whether you’re scout team or first team, we don’t try to hurt anybody.”
New Year’s plans
The Tillmans aren’t too flustered with the change in kickoff time.
“We went to Plan B,” he says. “I know a lot of fans were mad. Some, I’m sure, wanted to take their kids. If they took their kids to the game at noon, they could have fun, then get them with a baby-sitter, go out and have fun. Now it’s a question, do I go to the game or go with my other plans and celebrate?
“We can’t control it. The only thing we can do is just roll with it, so it really doesn’t make sense to get mad. . . . I think on the schedule it says `subject to change,’ so the league covers themselves. It’s OK to get mad, but it doesn’t change the fact that we’re still playing at 7:15.”
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