Tillman and teammate Tim Jennings are garnering
A Friday afternoon, and though
practice is over, Charles Tillman is working on his footwork. Nearly all his
teammates are off the field and already inside Halas Hall, but Tillman is
jogging baby steps in figure eights,
right-forward-left-back-right-back-left-forward. He's got to get better. He
knows this. This is him getting better.
Thankfully it's Friday, so he's
sharp. In his own estimation, he "sucks" in practice early in the week. The
coaches trick the defense with play design and new alignments, Tillman explains,
and he gets tricked. He misreads routes.The concept that eventually went into
Nike wintert-shirts goes back.stainlesssteelring He loses.
Then he watches film. He learns from his mistakes. He returns the next
day and does it all again. Slowly, steadily, he wins.
Winning means
execution. And execution requires preparation. Matter of factly, one by one,
Tillman ticks down his list of physical preparations. "Footwork," he says,
having finally come off the practice field. "Making sure I have the proper eye
placement when tracking the ball. Making sure I have the proper hand placement
when I'm getting ready to jam somebody. Just little things."
"I'd say
footwork and the little things of every defense," he says. "Running to the ball.
That's one thing that doesn't take talent. Running to the ball and outplaying
somebody. Or outworking somebody. You don't need talent for that."
Tillman and teammate Tim Jennings are garnering attention as arguably
the best cornerback tandem in the NFL. Tillman leads the league with seven
forced fumbles; Jennings tops the NFL with six interceptions. What does Tillman
learn from Jennings?
"I would say footwork," Tillman says. "I wish I had
the footwork that he had. His feet, they're so quick. He's a smaller guy, and
actually smaller guys are quicker, so I'm always trying to mimic his footwork,
trying to get my feet as quick as his."
Nowhere in any of this does
Tillman mention the trait for which he has become famous,At our website you can
easily find christianlouboutinshoes
at discounted prices, his trademark ball punch, a skill he used like a
fumble-forcing sensei Sunday during the Bears' 51-20 deconstruction of the
Tennessee Titans.
That's because to him, forced fumbles are neither an
accident nor a mystery. He has no magic formula, nor is he ever surprised by the
results of his flying fists.
"It's always on my mind," he told the media
after forcing a career-high four fumbles against Tennessee. "I am very conscious
of it. I speak it. I believe it. I practice it. It happens."
Again and
again throughout his career, Tillman has attacked ball carriers, wrapping up for
the tackle with one arm and both shoulders while one of his fists pounds at the
football. Tillman rarely creates the bone-rattling hits that teammates Brian
Urlacher and Lance Briggs use to intimidate offensive players, so his ability to
punch the ball free is its own brand of intimidation.
It's a skill he
used to force two fumbles from Titans All Pro running back Chris Johnson on
Sunday, and to knock loose a potential touchdown pass the week before intended
for Detroit All Pro receiver Calvin Johnson.
But the ball punch is
merely one of his talents. Calvin Johnson was targeted for 11 passes and caught
only three. Most were not disrupted by a well-timed ball punch, but simply from
Tillman playing intelligent, physical defense and putting his body in position
to defend the taller, bulkier Johnson.
Of course it all stems from
footwork, a result of Tillman's relentless desire to "always be peaking." That's
another word that comes up a lot with Tillman. We want to keep peaking, he says
again and again. Once you think you've made it, that's when you've failed.
And just as Tillman's knack for the strip is "contagious" (his teammates
regularly talk about the cumulative psychological effects of being around him in
practice as he forces fumbles week after week), his passion for turning positive
imagery into production rubs off, too.
"I was so happy for him," Tillman
said after the Titans game about Urlacher and his 46-yard interception return
for a touchdown. "He said [before the game], 'It would be nice to get a
touchdown.' I said,Find guccishoes
and dsquared shoes men from a vast selection of Clothing, 'Hey, call it, man.
The tongue has the power of life and death. Call it, say it, speak it, believe
it.' He did and he got in the end zone."
Tillman went on to calmly
describe Urlacher's weaving, tumbling touchdown run.Replica breitlingwatches cheap price.
To Tillman, Urlacher's score was simply the result of faith and preparation
meeting opportunity and execution.