Ex-Bears Charles Tillman, Olin Kreutz advance to next round of Pro Football Hall of Fame voting

Former Bears standouts Charles Tillman and Olin Kreutz advanced in the next round of Pro Football Hall of Fame voting, the museum announced Wednesday.
They survived the cut from 128 players to 52. They will next be voted on by the Hall’s full 50-person selection committee, which will whittle the list of modern-era players — who could have last played in 2020 — to 25. The names of those semifinalists will be announced in five weeks.

Kreutz was a six-time Pro Bowl center and one-time all-pro during his Bears career, which spanned from 1998-2010. He spent 2011 with the Saints.

Tillman, a cornerback who is credited with popularizing the “Peanut Punch” — in which defenders make a fist and pound at the football when making a tackle — went to two Pro Bowls and was named an all-pro once. He played for the Bears from 2003-14 before appearing in 12 games for the 2015 Panthers.