Forte, Tillman receive Piccolo Award honors

Running back Matt Forte and cornerback Charles Tillman were honored by the Bears Thursday as the winners of the 2008 Brian Piccolo Award.

Since 1971, the Bears have given the award to a rookie who best exemplifies the courage, loyalty, teamwork, dedication and sense of humor of former Bears running back Brian Piccolo, who died of embryonal cell carcinoma in 1970 at age 26. In 1992, the award was expanded to also include a veteran.

Tillman, who also won the award as a rookie in 2003, becomes only the sixth Bear to be honored as a rookie and a veteran. He led the Bears last season with 16 pass breakups and had 3 interceptions, 1 of which he returned for a touchdown. Tillman was also sixth on the Bears with 91 tackles after a trying preseason in which his infant daughter Tiana required a heart transplant.

As a rookie, Forte rushed for 1,238 yards and caught 63 passes for 477 yards. He accounted for 34.99 percent of the Bears' yards from scrimmage, the highest percentage of any player in the NFL.

"A lot of rookies come in and play in the NFL, but very few come in as ready as Matt Forte," said Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner. "Very few of them come in and have such a strong and immediate impact on a football team as what Matt did last year. The biggest problem that I have with Matt is making sure that we don't overwork him. He's so good and so intelligent that you don't want to take him off the field."

Proceeds from the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund benefit breast cancer research at Rush Medical Center and the Clearbrook Center for the developmentally disabled in Arlington Heights.