Peanut Tillman leads Bears flag football clinics in Liverpool

Charles “Peanut” Tillman was on the field in Liverpool helping the Bears turn flag football into the center of their latest push overseas. The former Chicago cornerback joined youth clinics in the city as part of the club’s 2026 United Kingdom summer tour, a trip that also sent the Bears to Manchester and Loughborough and marked their fifth straight year working in Britain.

Tillman said in a June 23 Liverpool postcard that he was on his third or fourth trip across the pond with the Bears, and the club said he was there to experience the clinics and help teach them. That matters because the Bears are not treating Liverpool as a one-off photo opportunity. Their UK schedule combines flag football clinics, girls flag football championships and a fan activation at Royal Albert Dock, all tied to the same international brand-building effort.

The Bears hosted their Liverpool fan event at Royal Albert Dock on June 21, with Tillman joined by current cornerback Josh Blackwell, Staley Da Bear, 2024 International Fan of the Year Kymie Walker, former Liverpool FC star Robbie Fowler and Liverpool FC mascot Mighty Red. Blackwell also spent time at the UK girls flag football league championships in Loughborough and said he was looking forward to the Liverpool youth clinics, giving the tour a clear through line from competition to instruction to fan-facing events.

That structure fits a larger NFL plan. Flag football will debut at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, and NFL clubs have already voted to let NFL players take part in the sport at LA28. The timing gives youth clinics a different kind of weight: they are no longer just holiday programming or brand maintenance, but part of a pathway that could eventually connect overseas participation to the Olympic stage.

The numbers behind the sport help explain why the Bears are leaning in. NFL FLAG says flag football is played by more than 20 million people in more than 100 countries, and the Bears’ own history in Liverpool gives this year’s work a measurable backdrop. In 2025, the club’s Liverpool-area Mini Monsters clinics drew more than 600 children from 14 local schools, a sign that the Bears’ outreach in the city has moved beyond a single visit and into a repeatable development model.