Ex-NFLer — And Now Ex-FBI-er — Peanut Tillman Say He Quit Over Immigration Enforcement

Charles "Peanut" Tillman spent 13 seasons in the NFL, 12 with the Chicago Bears and a final season with the Carolina Panthers in 2015, and like many former players, he moved into a second career.

Unlike many players, he didn't go into broadcasting, coaching, or car dealership ownership; he joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

However, he revealed in a recent interview that he quit over, of all things, immigration.

Tillman was a guest on Ryan Clark's The Pivot Podcast, and he talked about why he decided to leave the Bureau after seven years of service.

"Some of the things they’re doing I personally didn’t agree with, [such as] immigration," Tillman said, per The New York Post. "I didn’t agree with how the administration came in and tried to make individuals do things against their [beliefs]. . . . It didn’t sit right.

I get that… but every job has that.

Although I can imagine it was quite a shock when a new administration rolled in and wanted to actually — *gasp* — enforce the nation's laws.

"An example being immigration. 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," Tillman was told. "Personally, that didn’t sit right with me, that didn’t sit right with my conscience.

"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? I’m good," he said.

Hey, if you don't agree with what's happening, Tillman did the right thing and hit the bricks. If you're not into the idea of enforcing laws when you work in law enforcement, maybe consider a career change.

I mean, it's not like in the FBI you can just blow off orders and do what you want…

…wait.

Charles Tillman explains why he quit the FBI, citing immigration enforcement and a refusal to follow orders that clashed with his conscience. (Getty Images)

Apparently, FBI Orders Are Optional

"That didn’t sit right with my conscience. Like, you have the ability to refuse an order," Tillman said. "Just because they say ‘go arrest this person, yeah, you’re my superior, I don’t have to go do that. You can’t make me go do that. You know, I’m not in the military. You gave me an order, but I can totally refuse that order. "

You can?! 

Who knew the FBI had OTAs?

I mean, Tillman knows more about the FBI than I do. He worked there. All I did was watch some movies about it, and I've gone past Quantico while on a train a few times.

But that doesn't seem like that should be happening. If you're told that you need to arrest someone or look into something, I don't think the individual agent should be allowed to react thusly:

Am I mistaken, or isn't there some kind of oath one takes that has to do with upholding the nation's laws? Those about immigration should fall under that umbrella. You can't cherry-pick the laws you enforce based on your personal preferences.

But, that said, I think Tillman did the right thing by quitting instead of, y'know, not doing his job, and he seems cool with that too.

"At the end of the day, I want to be on the right side of history when it’s all said and done," he said.

Yes, the side of undermining laws. 

That's where you want to be.