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Veteran NFL cornerback Charles Tillman has only one team he wants to play for once he is fully recovered from the torn ACL that cost him a chance to play in the Super Bowl last season.
“I just want to play for Carolina,” Tillman said Saturday as he helped former Chicago Bears teammate Matt Forte at his annual football camp in Slidell.
Tillman helped the Panthers to a 15-1 regular season record before an ACL tear in Week 17 put him out for the playoffs and Super Bowl.
The 35-year-old is five months removed from the surgery to repair the ACL injury, and it would be “probably another two months before I’m able to do a few more things.” To join a team toward the end of training camp “would probably be the timetable,” he said.
Tillman played 12 seasons with the Bears after the team selected in the second round of the 2003 NFL Draft out of Louisiana-Lafayette. He joined the Panthers in 2015 after his contract with the Bears expired.
“Being in Carolina felt like I had been there my entire career,” he said. “The team, the community, the atmosphere, that vibe. The Carolinas — North Carolina and South Carolina — they showed a lot of love.”
Tillman said the “unity and respect” among players was “what made us very special.”
“That’s the only team I really want to play for,” he said. “It’s Carolina. It’s a great group of men. … A great group of coaches. The front-office guys are great. To me it was no surprise they were, or we were, 17-2.”
The Panthers have eight cornerbacks on the 90-man roster, including three rookies selected in the 2016 NFL Draft after the team let All-Pro cornerback Josh Norman leave amid contract dispute.
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