#5

 

WALTER PAYTON

They called him “Sweetness” because of his personality. But Walter Payton’s production made him more of a throwback than any other football player of his era. When Payton was drafted by the Chicago Bears out of Jackson State in 1975, it was before specialization had set in around the league. There weren’t first-down run stuffers and third-down pass rushers. Instead, there were defensive linemen who were expected to play every down. Defensive backs were expected to cover the pass and stop the run. Perhaps an extra defensive back was thrown into the mix in the fourth quarter to prevent a big pass play.

But you had to play the game the whole way. Payton played a complete game. He ran like a terror, blocked like a warrior, caught passes as if he were a wideout, and threw the ball for accuracy and distance whenever the coaching staff asked him to.

He surpassed Jim Brown as the game’s all-time leading rusher during the 1984 season. He finished his career with 16,726 yards in 13 seasons. He punished tacklers throughout his run in the NFL even though he was 5-foot-10 and his playing weight was only 200 pounds. He missed one game in his rookie season and he never missed another. On a team that many recognize as having had the greatest single season in the history of football, Payton was the best all-around player on the 1985 Bears.

Mike Ditka, the head coach of those Bears and the franchise’s icon since the death of George Halas in 1983, called Payton the greatest football player he’s ever seen. “I never saw a player who gave more of himself on every play he was out there than Walter Payton,” Ditka said. “There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do in a dominant fashion. He was the best runner, the best blocker and the best receiver. He could throw it when you wanted him to and he would do anything he could to help his team win. What more can you ask?”

In a league in which many of the best players have a hard time sustaining performances from one year to the next, Payton would not allow himself to go into a slump or ever be satisfied. That’s why he had 77 games with more than 100 yards rushing, including a 275-yard effort in one game against the Minnesota Vikings. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards in a season 10 times, an NFL record at the time of his retirement, and was voted to the Pro Bowl nine times.

No one who played for the Bears ever caught more passes than Payton’s 492. In fact, no one even came close. No Hall of Fame running back ever blocked with as much gusto as Payton, who routinely put linebackers and defensive linemen on their backs by taking them out at the knees before they could get near his quarterback.

Playing with some mediocre teams in the mid 1970s and early ’80s, Payton broke hundreds of tackles just to get back to the line of scrimmage. Defenses were aware that some of those Bears teams possessed no threat other than Payton, so they made stopping him the focus of their game plan.

That’s part of the reason that of the 11 passes he completed on the halfback option play, eight went for touchdowns. The other reason is that the second most prolific ground gainer in NFL history had a stronger arm than a lot of the quarterbacks he played with over the years.

At one point, when injuries decimated Chicago’s quarterback position, Payton took a few snaps behind center. He could’ve handled the kicking and punting duties, too, if necessary. He did at Jackson State, where he kicked five field goals and 54 extra points and had a 39-yard punting average.

“I got as much pleasure watching him block somebody as watching him run for a touchdown,” Ditka said. “Or watching him catch a pass or throw a pass or kick the ball. He could do it all. In practice he did it as well as most people. He was just a talented guy. He was also the hardest-working guy we had. He was the first guy there and the last guy to leave.

“He came to camp in the best shape of anybody that I’ve ever seen and he did it all on his own. He ran the hills, he lifted weights, he ran constantly up and down. He was a machine.”

Payton’s offseason conditioning program may have been the key to his consistent production. While others used training camp to get in shape, Payton would run hills in order to prepare for training camp; once he got there, it was a breeze for him. Payton started running up a 92-foot hill in an Arlington Heights, Illinois, landfill as many as 20 times a day. That training regimen built up his legs and endurance to a point that shocked his teammates.

“I saw what he was doing and I couldn’t believe it,” said former Bears fullback Matt Suhey. “It was the most grueling and painful thing I ever saw yet he never complained. Nobody else could do it and keep doing it like Walter. He was driven to be the best he could be.”

Payton was extremely effective during the 1985 season, rushing for 1,551 yards and averaging 4.8 yards per carry, the second-best total of his career. (He averaged 5.5 yards per carry in 1977 when he ran for a career-best 1,852 yards, the third-highest total ever in a 14-game season.) The ’85 Bears rolled to a 15–1 record and crushed the New York Giants, Los Angeles Rams, and New England Patriots and captured the franchise’s only Super Bowl.

Payton’s all-around talent and professionalism were on display throughout the season, but never more so than in the Week Three, 33–24 win at Minnesota. With the Bears trailing the Vikings late in the game, Jim McMahon came off the bench to get the passing game going. As Willie Gault ran deep, Payton delivered a crushing block on the blitz that allowed McMahon to throw a touchdown pass. When the Bears finally lost later that season to the Miami Dolphins and the focus of the undefeated season was gone, it was Payton who got them back on track against the Indianapolis Colts the following week with a 111-yard rushing effort.

Payton was the picture of vigor and health throughout his career; that made his 1999 death due to liver disease all the more tragic. Payton’s career rushing record has since been broken by Emmitt Smith, but his legacy as a complete player will never be touched.