Tillman was a pretty damn good football player. Had One truly elite year and one near elite season IMO. Other than that, a lot of pretty good seasons, but nothing note worthy. Even his one marquee number, 25% of them came in one season.
Very good player. Good dude. But if he played for any team other than the Bears we aren't sitting here having this conversation. I've said this before in regards to Tillman and to a lesser extent Forte, who FWIW I think was easier a better and more productive player than Tillman during his time in Chicago and I don't think Forte is a HOF running back.
The conversation would be: "Wow, Tillman retired. Really good guy. Pretty good football player. Unique specialty(or special move). Tip of the cap, best of luck to you in retirement."
The Hall of Fame wouldn't enter the discussion.
People need to actually go look at the CB's that are currently in the HOF. There are only like 15 or 16 of them and Tillman is nowhere near in their class. Two of them, (Lott and Woodson) excelled at safety as well. People need to understand how exclusive the NFL HOF is and how the voting process even works when they start saying "(Player X) is a HOF'er."