There is room for sentimentality in sports.

Despite football fans now being overly obsessed with salary cap structures, guessing which college kids will be solid professionals and PFF’s oft-unfounded system of grading, there is still room for an old fashioned fan to hold old fashioned beliefs. This old fashioned fan sure does.

Charles Tillman should have never worn another jersey in the NFL.

I don’t care what Peanut’s one-year deal with the Panthers costs. I don’t care that the Bears are a team in transition and Tillman would have little chance to be part of the finished product down the road. I don’t care that Tillman has been seriously injured the last two seasons and is approaching the last exit on his NFL highway.

I don’t care about any of these things because Charles Tillman is not only one of the greatest Bears of all-time but one of the greatest men to ever wear navy blue and orange. At a time when having this platform has made it somewhat easy for me to forget I am still a fan of the Bears, Tillman made it easy to remember. Most fans hero worshipped the middle linebacker. Not me. I idolized the cornerback who changed the way the sport is played.

Ryan Pace and John Fox are new to the Chicago Bears and are bringing a new and much needed approach. But if that approach does not involve Charles “Peanut” Tillman, allow me to be skeptical.