The 50 Greatest Players in Chicago Bears History. Robert W. Cohen

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      Walter Payton retired as the NFL’s all-time leading rusher.

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      Born in Columbia, Mississippi, on July 25, 1954, Walter Jerry Payton displayed a strong affinity for music while growing up in the segregated South, playing and singing in jazz-rock combos after school as a teenager. Although Payton continued to express his love for music while attending Columbia High School, playing drums in the school band, he began to exhibit his tremendous athleticism as well by participating in track as a long jumper, while also starring in baseball, basketball, and football, garnering All-State honors for his performance on the gridiron at running back. After running 65 yards for a touchdown the very first time he carried the ball as a junior, Payton ended up scoring at least once in every game he played over the course of the next two seasons, establishing himself in the process as one of Mississippi’s top running back prospects. However, with Southeastern Conference colleges accepting few black players at the time, Payton ultimately elected to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, Eddie, and enroll at historically black Jackson State University.

      Continuing to make a name for himself in college, Payton rushed for more than 3,500 yards, averaged 6.1 yards per carry, and scored 65 touch-downs and 464 points for the Tigers, with his outstanding play earning him Black College Player of the Year honors twice and All-America recognition once. Turning in his finest individual performance during his sophomore year, Payton scored seven touchdowns and tallied a total of 46 points during a 72–0 win over Lane College. While at Jackson State, Payton also acquired the nickname “Sweetness” for his affable personality and graceful athleticism.

Selected by the Bears with the fourth overall pick of the 1975 NFL Draft, Payton posted relatively modest numbers his first year in the league, rushing for 679 yards, amassing 892 yards from scrimmage, accumulating 1,336 all-purpose yards, and scoring seven touchdowns for a Chicago team that finished just 4-10. Emerging as the NFL’s premier running back the following season, Payton began an extraordinary 11-year run during which he posted the following numbers, with only the strike-shortened 1982 campaign being excluded from this graphic:

* Please note that any numbers printed in bold throughout this book indicate that the player led the NFL in that statistical category that year.

      Despite playing behind an inferior offensive line the first few seasons, Payton managed to finish either first or second in the NFL in rushing six times, placing in the league’s top five in three of the other four years. He also ranked among the league leaders in yards from scrimmage nine times, topping the circuit in that category twice. Payton’s amazing performance in 1977, which saw him set single-season franchise records for most yards rushing, yards from scrimmage, and rushing touchdowns (14), earned him NFL Offensive Player of the Year and league MVP honors. He also earned nine trips to the Pro Bowl, eight All-Pro selections, and nine All-NFC nominations during that time. More importantly, the Bears gradually established themselves as perennial contenders, making five playoff appearances, capturing three division titles, and winning one Super Bowl over the course of those 11 seasons.

Employing an extremely aggressive style of running even though he lacked great size, the 5'10½", 204-pound Payton had a way of exploding into defenders, typically doling out as much punishment as he received. Rarely choosing to run out of bounds, Payton preferred to run over potential tacklers, reinventing the use of the stiff-arm, which had gone out of favor among running backs during the 1970s. Recalling one of his encounters with Payton, former Dallas Cowboys cornerback Everson Walls said, “I caught his stiff-arm once, under my chin. It bent my head back, and, where your head goes, your body goes.”

      Refusing to apologize for the way he punished defenders, Payton stated, “What about the pain they’ve dealt out to me? Pain is expected in this game.”

      Commenting on Payton’s aggressive running style, former NFL head coach Jerry Glanville suggested, “He was a linebacker carrying the football.”

      Meanwhile, Jim Brown expressed his admiration for Payton’s confrontational mindset by saying, “We were warriors, and he was a great warrior. If a guy runs out of bounds because a cornerback is coming up to hit him, that’s not my kind of guy. Walter was definitely one of them because he was a powerful man. . . . Give me the heart of Walter Payton. There’s never been a greater heart.”

      Blessed with tremendous physical strength, Payton had the ability to bench-press 390 pounds and do leg-press series with more than 700 pounds. In discussing Payton’s granite-like physique, former Bears backfield coach Fred O’Connor once said, “The first time I saw Walter Payton in the locker room, I thought God must have taken a chisel and said, ‘I’m going to make me a halfback.’” An extraordinary all-around athlete, Payton also could throw a football 60 yards, punt it 70 yards, kick a field goal of 45 yards, and walk across a football field on his hands.

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