For each of the past 13 summers, Charles Tillman went to training camp with the Bears. So Thursday was a new experience.Reporting to Wofford for the first time as a member of the Panthers, the 34-year-old cornerback quickly became the leader in the clubhouse for the best quote at this year’s camp.On his first day in Spartanburg:
“I’m excited being a new guy on a new team. It’s kind of like being a rookie all over again.”
On his harrowing flight earlier this week from Chicago to Charlotte:
“There was fuel leak, and we did an emergency landing in Indy. It was cool, only one lady really panicked. The rest of us were calm. I figured if everybody else was calm then I might as well be calm, too.
“Now, if I saw someone spitting pea soup, and their heads start spinning, and kids are running around and everyone is freaking out, screaming, then I probably would have freaked out, too.”
“They fixed our plane. It took about two hours or so … The pilot just said ‘We have to make an emergency landing, there’s a fuel leak. Everybody sit back and enjoy the flight’. He said it like he’s done it 100 times. He did a hell of a job.”
On the most nerve-wracking flight of his life:
“I did a combat landing once. I was flying to Iraq on a USO tour, and our flares on the back of the plane popped and the plane started shaking. We damn near started doing barrel roles in this big, C-130, and we did a combat landing.”
“The guy said, ‘When it gets hot in the triple digits, our flares go off. So nobody shot anything at us, but good thing our flares work.'”
“I said, ‘That’s not what I’m telling everybody. I’m telling them somebody shot an RPG at me.'”
“That was scarier than the fuel leak. I was freaking out on the inside on that one. I thought I was gonna die.”
Hopefully this will be my first and only emergency landing…#changingmyundewearnow #thankyouJesus pic.twitter.com/4c8Jrxkgnm
— Charles Tillman (@peanuttillman) July 29, 2015
What is your dorm room here like?
“My room looks like a meth lab. I tape aluminum foil to the walls because I like it pitch black because I’m very light sensitive. My room is pitch black at all times. The sunlight wakes me up in my bed. My bed faces east, so that’s the way the sun rises. So I still gotta go to the store and get some aluminum foil and put some tape on that.”
.@peanuttillman has the best shirt of #PanthersCamp so far. pic.twitter.com/HUNKB2oVHp
— #PanthersCamp (@Panthers) July 30, 2015