Why Eberflus invited Peanut Tillman to Bears practice originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
One of the knocks against the former Bears regime was that it didn’t do enough to reach out to its alumni. Whether that was for input on the team, acting as an ambassador for the brand, or simply coming in to talk in the locker room, the organization didn’t seem interested in bringing back their former legends.
But new Bears head coach Matt Eberflus seems dedicated to bucking that trend. On an episode of Peter King’s podcast, Eberflus revealed he’s spoken to between 30 and 35 Bears alums, whether by text or on the phone.
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“That was pretty special,” Eberflus said on the podcast. “You look at your phone, you're going, ‘Wait, you got Dick Butkus,’... Then you have Julius Peppers, (Brian) Urlacher, (Lance) Briggs, you know, it's truly amazing.”
Eberflus doesn’t just want to respect the Bears legends, or hear their feedback however. He wants to connect the past to the future.
“Peanut Tillman, hopefully coming in for spring practice to talk to the team,” Eberflus said. “I got him talked into that, hopefully, so we'll see.”
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Naturally, King followed up by asking if Eberflus would ask Tillman to teach the Bears his famous Peanut Punch. Tillman’s 42 forced fumbles with the Bears are the most in franchise history, so there’s no one better to lead a clinic on how to get the ball out. And with “taking the ball away” (along with taking care of the ball) earning a spot as one of the four pillars in Eberflus’ HITS philosophy, it’s clearly going to be a big part of the defense’s identity moving forward.
That’s an opportunity Eberflus wouldn’t be able to pass up, if Tillman does make it out to camp.
“He’s going to. Oh, he’s going to.”
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