SCORECARD
HARLES TILLMAN’S hands are rough
and scratched. There are twin
calluses at the base of his middle and
ring fingers, like a pair of mountains rising
from his palm. He paddles his left oar, over and
over and over again, fighting a strong current
that’s keeping him from reaching the harbor.
Tillman retired after a 13-season NFL
career three years ago, and his trademark
move, the Peanut Punch—a quick right jab
he’d use to knock the ball away, helping him
force 44 fumbles over his career—never gave
him tough hands like these. On Sept. 2 (if
weather allows), the former Bears cornerback
will row 65 miles across Lake Michigan from
St. Joseph, Mich., to Chicago’s 31st Street
Harbor to raise money for pediatric cancer
research and to support families with critically
ill children. He’s teamed up with marketing
exec and fellow philanthropist Jake Beckley
to create Row4Kids, which combines their
individual foundations to raise money.
Tillman was inspired to start his nonprofit,
the Cornerstone Foundation, after his daughter
Tiana had a life-saving heart transplant when
she was five months old. They’re hoping to
persuade 650 people to donate $1 for each of
the 65 miles across Lake Michigan. “Yeah, my
butt goes numb after an hour and a half, and I
have blisters,” Tillman says of rowing. “But it’s
nothing to what these kids go through when
they have cancer.”
Beckley already rowed across Lake
Michigan once by himself, and the trip was so
difficult that he swore he’d never do it again.
This time he and Tillman decided to build
their own boat: Hope’s Journey, 22 feet long
and five feet wide.
Tillman will sit in the bow to set the pace,
Beckley in the aft, to set the direction. (“I
don’t want to be responsible for us rowing the
right way,” Tillman says.) A chase boat will
follow, stocked with tools they can’t fit in the
rowboat: extra batteries, bolts, wrenches and,
most important, a hot sandwich for Tillman.
“I can only do snacks for so long,” he says.
Tillman currently works for the FBI, but he
isn’t allowed to discuss his job. All he can say is
when he walks on shore after around 20 hours
on the lake, he’ll need a day off work to recover.C
RETIRED NFL CORNERBACK CHARLES TILLMAN IS TRAINING
TO ROW 65 MILES ACROSS LAKE MICHIGAN
PEANUT (NOT) BRITTLE
BEAR
DOWN
Rowing might
look easy,
but Tillman
quickly learned
otherwise.
“It’s more
difficult than
I thought,” he
says. Here’s how
the longtime
cornerback
prepared.EARLY
WORKOUTS
Tillman rises at
5 a.m. to work
out. He spends
two hours on
his Concept2
Rower, moved
to his patio to
practice in heat
and humidity.
He’ll also do two
10- to 15-hour
lake sessions.PERFECTING
HIS FORM
“I didn’t realize
how in sync
everything has
to be,” he says.
“The sequence
of putting it all
together: legs,
core, arms.” He’s
learning from
coaches at the
Chicago Rowing
Foundation.TARGETED
WEIGHTS
Tillman has
mostly stopped
weight training
to focus
on rowing
technique. But
when he lifts,
he chooses
exercises to
target his
hamstrings
and lats.