Former NFL star Charles Tillman has revealed that his shock career change as an FBI agent quickly came to an end due to Donald Trump’s immigration policy.
Tillman enrolled in the FBI Training Academy’s 20-week training program in Quantico, Virginia in 2018 to pursue a full-time career in the Bureau.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail back in June, the Chicago Bears legend cited a desire to ‘do my part and give back’ as his reasons for joining up.
However, Tillman recently revealed that his career with the Bureau has come to an end – and claimed that his opposing views to Trump’s policies played a large part.
The former defensive back insisted that he was not comfortable with the role which the FBI were ordered to take on amid Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Speaking on The Pivot podcast, he said: ‘The FBI was great to me. I did awesome. I worked with an amazing group of individuals.
Charles Tillman revealed that his shock career change as an FBI agent quickly came to an end
The former NFL star said Donald Trump’s immigration policies played a big role in his decision
FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration officers and agents were called in to assist with raids (Pictured: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detain a person in Silver Spring)
‘I think some of the things that they’re doing now, I personally didn’t agree with. I didn’t agree with how the administration came in and tried to make individuals do things… it just didn’t sit right.’
Tillman, 44, went on to discuss the raids which he and his fellow local agents carried out on suspected undocumented immigrants in Chicago.
He continued: ‘Everybody was told, you’re going to go after the most dangerous criminals, but what you see on TV and what actually was happening was people weren’t going after that.
‘And that didn’t sit right with me. That didn’t sit right with my conscience. At the end of the day, I want to be on the right side of history when it’s all said and done.
‘Do I think there are individuals in the organization, do they like doing some of the stuff that they’re doing? Absolutely not. I think they hate it.
‘I was in a different position because of my previous career. I made enough money to where I could just walk away and say, ‘You know what, guys? I’m OK. I think I’m good.
‘My first eight years, I’ve been solid. We were doing some good things. Some of the stuff that you’re doing now, I don’t necessarily agree with. And that’s not in Chicago, that comes from Washington.’
After leaving the Bureau, Tillman returned to football and launched the ‘NFL Players Second Acts’ podcast as well as the ‘Bears Den’ podcast in Chicago.
After hanging up his cleats in 2016, Tillman went on to become an agent with the FBI
The cornerback was drafted by the Bears in the second round of the 2003 NFL Draft
Retiring in 2016, having amassed a $51million fortune from his career in the league, Tillman did try his hand at broadcasting, spending his first year out of football working as an NFL analyst for Fox Sports.
But his sense of civic duty ultimately won out and he enlisted in FBI training – a decision his former teammates were supportive of.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail back in June, he said: ‘I work with a lot of good people who do some pretty amazing things.
‘It’s a thankless job. You don’t get credit for it. You do your job. You’re not in the paper. You do the job because you don’t want to be in the paper. You do it because you’re protecting people.’
Yet, his role with the FBI isn’t his first act of service to the community.
In 2008, Tillman’s world was turned upside down. He and his wife, Jackie, were left helpless when his baby girl Tiana was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness at just three months old.
Tiana, one of Tillman’s four children, was life-flighted to Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago where she was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy – or enlarged heart – with the organ unable to pump enough blood through her tiny body.
The family were left facing a miracle – one that ultimately came from the selfless sacrifice of another mother, who donated her deceased baby boy’s heart.
Tillman, pictured with his wife Jackie, tried his hand at broadcasting for a year after retiring
Tillman had already established the Charles Tillman Cornerstone Foundation three years prior, helping to impact the lives of thousands of critically and chronically ill children and their families but after having his own prayers answered, the footballer’s cause received a new lease of life.
‘When my daughter got sick in 2008 and received a heart transplant, I wanted to do more in the community,’ he explains. ‘It really lit a fire underneath me to be better about giving. I was blessed. She was blessed. We were blessed. We’re still blessed. How can I bless other people?’
Tillman and his work were honored by the NFL in 2013 when he was awarded the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award – the only achievement in the league that recognizes excellence both on and off the field.
He beat out 31 other players from the league’s remaining franchise, and to him, that meant more than reaching not one, but two Super Bowls.
