Charles Tillman Wants Only Bears Math Problems

Charles "Peanut" Tillman has been a Bear for nine seasons. He's navy and orange, and doesn't want to hear about the Packers in his own city.

At a fundraiser, Tillman was approached by Casey Bridge, an eighth grader at a Chicago Public School. She needed help with a math problem, and Tillman was the best one to help her with it.

The Packers play the Bears 4 times in two seasons. The Packers, being a much better team, have an 80% chance of winning each game. What is the probability that the Bears win all four games? What is the probability that the Bears win at least one game?

For good reason, Tillman was not happy about the response. He wrote a note to the teacher:

Mr. Amrein,

This is Charles "Peanut" Tillman of the Chicago Bears and I'm shocked that you would have a problem like this for your students. The probability that the Bears would win in my opinion is 100%. Please do not and I repeat DO NOT send them home with math homework that is disrespectful to our team, city and our beloved Chicago Bears.

    Your All Pro Corner
    Charles "Peanut" Tillman
    33
    Geaux Bears

    P.S. Bear Down


Tillman confirmed to NBC Chicago that he did write the note.

"I was at a fundraiser event and this little girl came up to me and asked me to help with the problem. Once I read the it, I had to write the teacher a note," Tillman said. "All in good fun."

Casey also wrote about meeting Tillman in an email to Yahoo! Sports.

All I asked for was a signature, just to poke fun at my teacher, but Peanut was so gracious and funny that he wrote the entire paragraph. I then showed Mr. Amrein, and he thought it was very funny, and gave me an A (but I also got the original question correct). He then gave me no homework for the rest of the week, and said that he only gave the problem "based on statistics". He is a fantastic teacher, and makes math more fun with things like this. He is not at all rude, or biased, but just an exceptional math teacher. Thank-you for posting this.

What you have here is a football star who took the extra time to make a student and her teacher smile, a teacher who goes the extra mile to get his students to love learning, and a student who worked hard to earn an A. Bravo to all involved.

Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
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