Charles Tillman Gave His Super Bowl Tickets to the Family of a Fallen Soldier

(Source) - Hours after winning the 2013 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award, Chicago Bears free-agent cornerback Charles Tillman took to Twitter on Sunday morning to inform his 107,000 followers that he had a pair of tickets to give away for Super Bowl XLVIII later that day. 

Later that morning, Tillman announced that the Doltz family would receive the coveted Super Bowl tickets. Neeraj Singh, a friend of Sgt. Ryan Doltz’s family, told Tillman about the tragic story of the soldier who was killed while on duty in Iraq a decade ago at the age of 26. 

Tillman, the son of an Army sergeant, had to attend 11 schools from kindergarten to 12th grade. 

Dan Wiederer of the Chicago Tribune confirmed that New Jersey paramedic Greg Doltz, Ryan's brother, attended the game with his wife, Tiffany, with Singh serving as the middle man in the ticket exchange. 

"Even up to the minute before I had the tickets in my hand, I thought the whole thing was a hoax," Doltz told the Tribune. "Even on the drive down, I told my wife, 'If this turns out not to be real, let's just go have fun at our friends' house. It'll still be worth the trip. Who cares?' 

"It was so spur-of-the-moment. And that was Ryan's thing. He would drop everything he was doing to hang out with his friends. He would be in New Jersey, and his friend in Virginia would call to see what he was doing. And the next thing you knew, he would be getting in his car to drive to Virginia." 

These sorts of gestures have become commonplace for Tillman, who became the fifth Bears player to win the coveted Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award. Tillman was also a finalist for the honor in 2011. 

This is exactly why I love rooting for guys like Charles Tillman.  Yes, he's an unbelievable player but at the same time he's always been a guy who actually cares, and he shows it.  He's one of the good ones.  One of the players who realizes that he's in a very fortunate place in his life, and he's got the opportunity to help others. As a military kid, he's always been one of the league's foremost in honoring the brave men and women that serve our country.  He didn't win the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award and then start a new campaign the next day.  This type of gratitude and generosity towards the heroes that protect us is simply a part of his everyday life.  And I for one am always going to cheer on Peanut for the rest of his career, whether he stays or goes, for that very reason.  Everyone in Chicago should be proud to call him a Bear, and any organization that might sign him will be picking up a guy that's a class act both on the field and off of it.