Worthwhile links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Payton
http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.aspx?PLAYER_ID=174
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_rFTD7OfVg
Breakdown: Perhaps the greatest all-around player to ever grace the NFL. Born and raised in tiny Columbia, Mississippi, Payton battled through integration and discrimination to earn a scholarship to Jackson State College. As a freshman, he teamed up in the Tigers’ backfield with his brother, Eddie Payton, to form one of the SWAC’s best running tandems. Payton left the school in 1975 as the all-time rushing leader. He was drafted fourth overall by the Chicago Bears, and broke into the league by rushing for a whopping zero yards in his first game.
Over the course of 13 seasons, however, Payton emerged as a superstar, breaking O.J. Simpson’s single-game rushing record with 275 yards against the Vikings in 1977, then toppling Jim Brown’s all-time rushing mark in 1984.
Payton retired with multiple NFL records, including 16,726 rushing yards and 21,264 yards from scrimmage.
Although his playing career was fulfilling and engrossing, Payton struggled to adjust to life after football. He suffered myriad bouts of depression, and never experienced the same joy that he once felt on the football field.
He died in 1999, at age 46, from bile duct cancer.
Pearlman’s take: The original title of this book was going to be “In the Blink of an Eye: The Life and Times of Walter Payton.” The idea came from an interview I did with Jimbo Covert, when he noted, “Man, Walter was just like the blink of an eye—here one second, gone the next.” But then we all sort of agreed that “Sweetness” was the way to go, because the name fits so perfectly. Walter Payton was clearly a sweet runner and the owner of a (publicly, at least) sweet demeanor. It’s also such a weird nickname to give a football player. The NFL is the world of Butches and Hulks and Brunos—not Sweetness. But Payton wasn’t like the other players. He was … sweet.
From Sweetness: In the NFL, great athletes are the norm. Everyone is either incredibly fast or exceptionally strong, so much so that the remarkable can often appear mundane. There was nothing mundane about Payton. “He had a gluteus that I’ve never seen on another person in my life,” said Ken Valdiserri, the Bears’ longtime media relations coordinator. “His ass was chiseled. It was the most unique thing I’ve ever seen. And if you walked into the locker room it was like, ‘How can a guy have an ass like that?’ The curvature and the depth and the definition of it.”
“He was like an acrobat,” said Tom Donchez, a backup running back. Ross Brupbacher, a Bears linebacker, called him, “A muscle.” Don Rives, the ornery linebacker, said tackling Payton “was like tackling a barrel. I hit him as hard as I could in practice and he shed me like I was Little Bo Peep.” Said Doug Plank, the team’s twelfth- round pick from Ohio State: “At first I thought it weird that Walter was always fl exing. Then it hit me— he’s not flexing. He’s made of rocks.” Payton walked on his hands, flipped up, and landed in a split. He stood below a regulation basketball hoop, jumped up, and dunked with ease. “The punters were practicing one day, and he decided to give it a try,” said Dave Gallagher, a defensive end. “He walked over, picked up a ball, punted it sixty yards, and walked away. No biggie.”
“Genetically, he seemed to be just like a rubber ball,” said Larry Ely, a linebacker. “When he got tackled, four . . . five . . . six people would have his legs, his neck, his arms, and he’d bounce back like a rubber ball to the huddle. How in the world did his ligaments and muscles take the pounding and bounce right back? You looked at him and wondered how any human being could be blessed with such a body.”
“He took up golf one day with the Bears,” said Bo Rather, a receiver. “He picked up an eight or nine iron and told us, ‘See that light post out there? I’m gonna hit it.’ The post must have been a hundred and twenty yards away, and Walter took the club, swung, and hit that post right down the middle. It was phenomenal. Whatever he did, he would be good at it.”